Dark Aura
by RandomRamune
Summary: Darker AU, Aura Ash, later OP: After an attack by a phantom being Ash discovers he’s not like everyone else. When more phantoms attack the League raises the minimum trainer age to 16 along with introducing a new gym requirement, the Guardian Initative. And as Ash turns 16, he’ll have more than the challenges of becoming a pokemon master to overcome.
1. Prologue

Hello all, I'm Random Ramune and this is my first fanfiction.

I'm not entirely sure how long this will be or how often I will be able to update (I'm in graduate school, so most of my brainpower/energy is dedicated to that) but I've been thinking about doing a fanfiction for a while now, and if life has taught me anything, waiting for the right moment or enough time to do something will always be an eternity. Most likely I will update during breaks (winter, spring, before and after summer quarter), but I tend to write in bulk so I may release it more steadily than that.

A few notes about the story: This is NOT a shipping fiction. Romance isn't really my thing to write, so there won't be any pairings.

The story is a mix of anime, games, and manga for inspiration. It's heavy on the AU and the characters will be older, set in a little more realistic world, as this worked out better for the story. It's not a rewrite of the entire journey from the animes either, it just worked better to start at the beginning.

I'm most familiar with Kanto through Hoenn, and then Kalos, so you'll see most of the inspiration coming from these regions. The rest of the regions are mainly game inspired as I have played the games, but haven't watched the anime. The same goes for descriptions of pokemon, they'll be coming from the game Pokedex entries more so than the anime.

I try to use only characters that have appeared in the shows, games, and manga for major roles. OCs occurring would basically be NPCs.

The themes are darker, more mature, but I'm not a fan of large amounts of gore or cursing - keeping this rated T - so it's what I'd like to see if they made a Pokemon series for older kids and teens. I am learning/practicing writing creepy-scary type scenes/situations, as a heads up for those who may not like ghoulish things.

I'll add stuff here as needed.

Otherwise, you know the drill, I don't own Pokemon or am affiliated. The original story is mine. Constructive crit welcomed, don't be sassy, stay classy.

Prologue

For centuries, the Kingdom of Rota had been protected by knights with the ability to sense and wield aura known as aura guardians. There were many a powerful guardian, faithfully working, training and fighting alongside their Lucario aura partners to defend the peace so that nearly everyone had held so dear. Nearly, because while the exiles' numbers were small, the power that they possessed was anything but feeble.

It was a rare occurrence, but some aura guardians possessed the ability to control not only the energy of normal aura, but also another form of energy whose origins were still unknown and was referred to as dark aura. Some said it was a gift, or curse for that matter, of Giratina from the Reverse World. Others said it was the remnants of the worlds Arceus previously created and destroyed to create this one, and the guardians who could access it were descended from him, or more likely cursed by him as time went on. What wasn't in doubt was the effect it had on those who wielded it.

A once honorable guardian would soon become cold, calculating and eventually driven into madness as they continued to tap into and rely on the dark energy. So, it was decided shortly before Sir Aaron's time, that no matter what dark aura was, it had to be banned.

It had seemed like a small sacrifice for the kingdom to exile the few aura guardians and families that historically had possessed the ability. Twenty-six people to preserve the peace and safety of tens of thousands should have been the right choice. What the Kingdom of Rota didn't realize was that these twenty-six would have brought the kingdom to ruins if it weren't for the sacrifice of their most beloved guardian Sir Aaron, a descendant of the twenty-six exiles.

The only ones who knew of Sir Aaron's origins were his mentor and the Queen herself. His mentor, who had refused to believe the power of dark aura was a curse, placed his life on the line, swearing to the Queen that he could train and instruct an aura guardian in the ways of dark aura without the descent into madness. If his pupil did, he would die beside them. The queen agreed and if she had not, the Kingdom of Rota would no longer be.

How Sir Aaron's mentor to teach him to control his dark aura was never recorded, but it is thought that the twenty-six exiles had their own teachings as well. These teachings were passed down generation to generation, even after aura guardians had faded into legend and is where their next chapter begins.


	2. The Boys from Pallet

Edit: I saw the formatting turned into code and it should be fixed now. Sorry about that and thank you!

Have a wonderful holiday and new year!

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**Tick, tick, tick.**

_"Groan, come on clock move faster!"_

**Tick…tick…tick…**

_"Seriously! Did it just get slower? I swear if there's a psychic Pokémon messing with the clock…"_

**Ring!**

"Alright that's enough for today class. Please remember, trainer school registration opens next week, so get your field trip permission slips signed by your parents or guardian in the packets I gave you and have them to me by Monday afternoon before the end of class. If you're not attending the trainer school next year or don't know yet, please have your career survey filled out and turned in at the end of the month as well. Class dismissed."

A chorus of cheers, a clattering of chairs and shuffling of feet erupted out of Miss Field's classroom and into the hallway as class two, grade five at Pallet Town Elementary was finally freed from another routine day of school. One of the louder, if not the loudest, among the wave of ten and eleven-year-olds rushing outside to enjoy the last weekend before spring break and the next school year was a boy by the name of Ash Ketchum, as he sprinted to the shoe lockers with his green backpack in tow. Not far behind the raven-haired boy was an equally loud, if not louder, boy from class three known by all as Gary Oak, the grandson of the world-renowned Professor Oak and son of the most recent elite four champion and Viridian Gym Leader, Blue Oak.

"Hey Ashy boy! Where do you think you're going in such a hurry?" Gary said, starting his usual banter with his lifelong friend along with his signature smirk.

"Beating you to wherever you're going of course!" Ash replied, narrowing his auburn eyes at his brown-haired childhood friend as he swung open his locker and changed into his pair of well-worn sneakers as fast as he could.

"Ha! If you're thinking of beating me today of all days, you can say goodbye to getting any cake!" Gary knew that Ash wouldn't go easy on him, even on his birthday, but there was no way he'd expect anything less from his future rival.

"What? No way! My mom made the cake and there's no way you're getting any if I don't!" Ash had been eyeing that cake like a pidgeot, drooling over it like a snorlax since he had gotten home from school yesterday. His wrist was still tender where his mom had smacked him for trying to steal one of its chocolate flowers earlier that morning and the night before. If it weren't for his mom's strict no Pokémon in the house rule, he could have sworn she had a ghost type hiding about to warn her whenever he was about to something he shouldn't. Her glare was scary enough to be mistaken for a mean look move even.

Yet Gary's comment had done the trick and got Ash's thoughts caught up in the prospect of not having cake just long enough for Gary to get his shoes tied first and take off toward his grandfather's Pokémon laboratory, "Like I'd need you to let me win on my special day! Smell ya later!"

Realizing he fell for Gary's taunt, Ash quickly jammed his other shoe on, grabbed his backpack and left his locker in disarray, ignoring the shouts behind him from the class representative, a girl named Green, to fix it. He felt a little bad, but not as bad as he would feel letting Gary win with a cheap psych-out move like that, as he raced down the dirt road.

Teachers were always getting after him for his lack of paying attention and being impatient, saying his grades would be better if he'd just focus. But how could he when he had a whole life as a Pokémon trainer and becoming the world's greatest Pokémon master in front of him? He knew it was all supposed to be important, but how important could it be if he was just going to go to the trainer school next year? Gary had already made a show of turning in his application form for his trainer's license, being the required age of eleven-years-old today, Ash only had three more weeks before he could turn in his too. He didn't even have to wait those three weeks for the trainer school application part either, just the beginner's learning license that had been ready to go since he was ten, which was just after they bumped the age to eleven.

Of course, Gary being three weeks older could have had his license for a year now, but he refused to start training without a rival, reciting his father's story of his own rivalry with the mysterious trainer known only as Red. After Gary had turned in his license form that morning on their way to school, he told Ash the story, again, of the nameless trainer of unknown origins that had rescued his father who had snuck past the league guards at the base of Mount Silver. According to Gary, Blue still had no idea how Red had found the very lost and frozen Blue, or how he was on Mount Silver in the first place. The only thing he could remember from their first encounter was how Red had outwitted an especially territorial tyranitar and in his hypothermic state he thought he had seen Red fighting it himself, glowing an eerie red, before Blue passed out from the cold. When Blue woke, he found that Red had carried him all the way back down the mountain to the Pokémon Center at the base of the mountain. Red wouldn't give him his name or how he outwit the tyranitar, but Blue was determined to make him his official rival and that they'd become Pokémon masters together. But by the time his mom had arrived, Red had disappeared, and no one had any clue who Blue was talking about. Even so, Blue swore he'd find Red one day and they'd have a Pokémon battle unlike any other the world had seen.

Of course, the way both Gary and Blue told the story was overly dramatic or over embellished, like making it far enough up Mount Silver to encounter a tyranitar in the first place with only a squirtle and a male nidoran, let alone a mysterious trainer named Red that no one knew of but him. Professor Oak claimed they got it from his ex-wife and elite four member Agatha, who was the first one there to pick up Blue. When she first heard about Red from Blue, she simply assumed it was a guardian spirit of the mountain, but Blue insisted Red wasn't a ghost, that he was his rival trainer, even after he couldn't explain how Red had no Pokémon and had never checked into the Pokémon Center. Ash asked Gary one time what he thought Red really was, and while he wanted to believe his dad, his grandmother's side of the story made more sense, especially because she specialized in ghost types. Either way, Ash would likely hear the story again after he turned in his license form three weeks from now and since Gary had already beat him to that, he wasn't going to let Gary beat him to Professor Oak's lab.

Even though it would only be a short sprint to catch up to Gary and pass him, Ash decided that it would be much more satisfying to not only beat Gary to his grandpa's lab, but to be already out in the field working as if he had been there for hours. And Ash knew just the shortcut that would take him there.

Unlike the road which went around the set of winding hills and thick woods that made up part of the Professor's lab, Ash had found a Pokémon made trail that cut right through the thickest part of the woods and came out right next to the stables. Ash grinned with delight, first the trail had helped him avoid another lecture about sleeping in from Professor Oak, and now it would serve as the perfect birthday surprise for Gary Oak. He double-checked that Gary wasn't looking over his should before he sprinted off the dirt road, into the grass and up into the woods to find the path. And it would have worked out perfectly if there was only one Pokémon trail through the woods or if the previous trail was the one he had found this time, unfortunately, Ash wasn't lucky enough to have either one happen.

_…Several hours later…_

"Hello? Can anyone hear me? I think I'm lost. Hello? Hello!" Ash kept calling out after finally realizing that not only was he nowhere near the professor's lab, but utterly lost in what he suspected was the part of the woods he was warned to never go into.

While he couldn't remember the reason why, having the attention span of a pichu as his mom would say, it probably had to do with why there were no caterpies, rattatas, pidgey or even the fearless spearow and beedrill. Even the plants of the underbrush seemed to grow more and sparse the further he wandered around, while the ominous air around made his ears buzz from silence. He knew he should just stay put and he was probably just making himself more lost, but he had lost sight of the sun what seemed like hours ago, but the chill in the air let him know that night was about to come. He tried to ignore the pounding in his chest and just stand still, sit, wait for help to come, but every random crack and brush of air at his back wouldn't let him.

"Ah! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Please don't eat me!" Ash jumped as a twig beneath his foot cracked, his blood racing like a herd of stantler in his ears. He finally let out his breath after confirming it was a stick and not a gengar about to punish him for not listening to his mom or Professor Oak when they told him not to wander into the woods, ever. Another gust of wind hit him from behind, he swore he could hear something laughing.

Ash dropped onto his hands and knees and began to beg, "Arceus and Mew, I promise if you let me get out of here alive I'll listen to my mom and professor Oak and all my teachers from this moment forward and do all of my homework and go to bed on time and get up on time and never hide a bug Pokémon in Green's shoe locker again!"

_Ahahahahahahahaha…_

Ash froze, his nose still breathing in the heavy scent of decay from the earth. He was hearing things.

_Ahahahahahahahahahahaha…_

No, he wasn't, and it was getting louder, followed by the echo of footsteps.

_"No, no, this isn't happening! There's nothing there, it's the wind or a Pokémon. Or Agatha. Yeah that's it! Gary's grandma, she loves doing this sort of stuff with her Pokémon. She's probably trying to teach me a lesson for going into the woods like this and after she does her final big boo, we'll go back to Professor Oak's, Gary will laugh, and I'll finally have some of mom's cake."_ Ash tried to comfort himself in his thoughts, daring to move himself off the ground and onto his knees until the laugh, even louder, was followed by a reply.

"Oh my, what a lost child we have here. A naughty child we have here. And yet the only thing he can think about is his mother's cooking. How sad. How foolish. How delicious."

couldn't move, but he couldn't tell if he was paralyzed from fear or from the faint ghoulish glow of amethyst and ruby red that he could see approaching, steadily floating from a mist that he couldn't remember was there before.

_"It's a trick! It's just Agatha. It's just Agatha. It's just Agatha."_ He couldn't breathe, each breath he sucked in was thinner than the last.

He heard a long, teeth chattering, hair raising, drawn out sigh, followed by a shape that could have been mistaken for a human being, but human beings don't glow red. They don't have eyes that boarder on being solid black, feet that seem to float across the ground, barely needing to touch to move themselves forward or deathly white hair that seemed to move of its own accord. And they definitely don't sound like a mismagius that was looking for the most bone chilling way to get its voice back.

Its approach seemed like it took an eternity for the thin, white clad, pale figure to approach. As if time was now at its command. Ash didn't know if it was an ability of the creature or if he was beginning to hallucinate, but he swore he could feel what he could only guess where the thing's feelings alongside his own. Anger, hunger, suspicion and caution? The last one didn't make sense, as well as the creature's surprise that followed.

"Ho? What's this?" The creature bent down in front of Ash and naturally he tried to back away, but the paralysis only allowed him to awkwardly jerk back in a whole-body flinch, which brought a smile to the creature's porcelain smooth face, as he began to circle Ash, looking him over.

"Well, who'd have thought. An adept all the way out here in the League's backyard and under that old hag's nose? Oh, this is a rare treat! You, of course, have no idea what I'm talking about boy, but still being conscious this close to me, let alone able to move at all, not even trained aura users can muster this much. You're certainly too much of empath for my teaching methods, but there are others…"

The creature continued to murmur his thoughts out loud, looking at, well Ash didn't know what or for, but nothing he could see. While his initial fear of being eaten was mostly gone, it was steadily replaced by another sense of dread, that if he didn't get out of here soon, he was going to wish that he ran into a hungry ursaring.

_"It's alright Ash, just think. It's not going to eat you, but it doesn't sound like it's going to let you head back home either. Ugh, why is it so hard to think when I'm hungry. Focus, just like everyone keeps telling you, focus. Don't think, focus."_ As Ash did, felt his body finally start to calm down, his breathing evened out and his tense muscles began to loosen, his arms began to slip to his sides and-

_"Wait, I can move! I can move again! But…"_ Ash carefully turned his head toward the creature who was now facing away from him, pulling something out of the long white jacket, which had begun to look more tan than white, it's wild hair shorter, darker, the creature more human than ghoulish, but was now emitting a powerful, increasingly intense red hue.

Ash wasn't going to wait. He jumped up and ran as fast as his feet would carry him away from the creature, urging himself to move faster and faster. He didn't know if it was the adrenaline or the intensity of the situation, but it almost felt like he could or was moving across the ground with the agility of the move extreme speed with the way the world around him was blurring by, and oddly taking on a vague blue light that didn't fit the lateness of the hour. That and the strange serenity that had taken over his mind, he would have to worry about it all later once he was away from the ghoul. He would have kept going if it weren't for the resounding boom that knocked him off his feet and sideways into a tree. His ears rang, his head was pounding and through the hazy, electrified air he could have sworn he saw a mew before he suddenly felt himself lift into the air and fall again. But instead of landing back onto the forest, he landed in the soft grassy field behind Professor Oak's house, watching the backdoor open and see his mom shout and run toward him before finally passing out into a world of black and briefly blue.

_…Late the next Morning…_

It was far from being a restful night's sleep for Ash that night, strange and terrifying dreams bombarded him seemingly every minute his eyes were closed. The ghoulish creature glowing in red and its freeze inducing hackle interrupted every good dream he started to have. From earning his trainer's license by tearing it up to swallowing Gary's birthday cake up in one gulp. To top it off it stole his official league hat from him that he hadn't even sent in the cereal box tops in for. By the time Ash finally woke up, he felt more drained than getting chased and then blasted into a tree had left him feeling. He was at least glad to find himself in his own messy bed and bedroom, surrounded by Pokémon league posters, merchandise, and with his clothes still on given the last nightmare had, had mew and the ghoul teleporting his clothes off of him in front of his entire class. Though these were small comforts compared to explaining what had happened to his mom as he headed down the stairs to breakfast turned to lunch.

After Ash had disappeared for what had been almost six hours, Delia had been relieved that Ash was returned safe and sound with only a few scrapes and bruises, but after he explained how he had ended up in the situation in the first place by via his shortcut through the woods, there was no holding back the mother's pent up fear.

"Ash Ketchum! Of all the irresponsible things you could have done! Professor Oak, Agatha and I have all told you not to go in there!"

"But Mom I-"

"Do you have any idea how lucky you are that the ghost Pokémon didn't do anything more than play a prank on you? Don't you remember what happened last time someone was lost in there after dark?"

"Mom! It wasn't a ghost Pokémon it was-"

"That poor trainer was held hostage for two weeks by a gang of gengar! He was lucky that Agatha got to him before the litwicks did! And we told all of you not to go in there ever! I can't believe-"

"Mom! I'm sorry! Ok? I'm sorry I forgot why I wasn't supposed to go in there and all, but it wasn't a ghost Pokémon! It was this scary white creature that didn't even look like a Pokémon. Or a human. It attacked and if it wasn't for a mew I wouldn't have made it back." Ash was finally able to yell out somewhat breathlessly over his mom's relentless scolding, though his sudden burst was met with a mixed reaction.

Delia sighed, "Ash…you know ghost Pokémon creature illusions. Or you would know if you had listened to us in the first place. Agatha and Professor Oak explained all of this after all that trainer was attacked and they discovered the location of the colony of ghost Pokémon."

"But mom, it was too real to be an illusion! There's something really dangerous in there and…" Ash trailed off as his mother's look of worry switched to that one look every kid knew meant they were not going to like what came next.

After giving Ash the said look, Delia took a breath and said, "I'm extremely disappointed in you Ash. Until further notice you are grounded. And," she lifted up a package with Ash's name on it from the company that ran the official promotions for the Pokémon league, "You will wait two weeks before you can have this and afterward you need to prove to me you can be responsible, or I will not permit you to go to the trainer's school next school year. Is that clear?"

Whatever Ash wanted to say to his mom to convince her otherwise evaporated and condensed into a cold sweat on his skin. It was one thing to wait for his hat another two weeks, it was an entirely different matter to wait another year to become a trainer. Gary would never let him live it down if he fell another year behind.

Ash shook his head vigorously to show he understood, and Delia let out a breath she didn't notice she had been holding. "Good, now go get cleaned up so I can take you to the doctor and start to put this whole thing behind us." Ash nodded heartily and dashed up the stairs, wincing as his mother added, "And make sure you put on clean underwear!"


	3. Beginnings and Endings

Hello all, thank you for reading my story and to those who read it even with the previous formatting issues in the first chapter before I fixed it thank you again! I'm still learning to use the site's publishing software and formatting, but hopefully that won't happen again.

I'm aiming to write and publish one chapter once a month.

After my professor talked about having difficulty with being creative after she finished her PhD, I thought it would be best to keep my creative writing skills sharp by not only writing during breaks while in graduate school and using it to break up all of the heavier academic reading and writing.

Anyways thank you for reading!

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Chapter 2: Beginnings and Endings

For the next week, things in Ash's life were back to being uneventful like usual. After getting a clean bill of health from the doctor, it was back to homework, school and convincing his mom that he was responsible enough to go to the trainer's school. At first, he was worried about the nightmares interfering with proving he was responsible, as having ghouls race around him on shadow rhyhorns, take all the starter Pokémon each time he tried to become a trainer and a number of other bizarre situations each night did little to help him stay awake during the day. His mom, of course, called the doctor on the video phone who again reassured her that Ash was fine, and the nightmares would settle down. The doctor offered to have a hypno help with insomnia, which immediately earned him an earful about the no Pokémon in the house policy followed by the receiver ending the call with a slam. Ash could only grimace at his mom's reaction and hope the day he would be a Pokémon trainer and out of the house would happen soon.

Ash didn't know why his mom didn't like Pokémon very much, he would've said she hated them but if she did, she probably wouldn't have even considered letting Ash attend the trainer's school in Viridian City. At least it meant that they were up-to-date technology-wise instead of being reliant on Pokémon for everything, which was the big trend throughout the Kanto, Johto and Hoenn regions. Even the centuries-old Pidgey Post service was expected to close in the next couple of years and the famous lighthouse in Olivine city was switching to an electric light after the current ampharos retired. Ash wouldn't have cared much except this also got people talking about whether or not Pokémon trainers, who normally took on most the jobs that were being replaced, were going to be needed in the future too. Talking with Professor Oak about this had always made him feel better, which was exactly what happened that Saturday morning as he began his first job.

To prove he was ready for trainer school, his mom and Professor Oak had arranged that Ash would work as the Professor's assistant, helping take care of the Pokémon around the ranch every morning before class, after class and all-day Saturday. Ash wanted to protest, not ready to give up his weekends just yet, but the Professor explained that this was part of being a Pokémon trainer.

"Ash, Pokémon training isn't easy. It doesn't start and stop with the days of the week or the time of day. It is a lifelong commitment to the creatures who will be your care, day and night, on the road and often far away from human civilization. But for as hard as it is, it is also equally rewarding. However, it's not something that's for everyone and you can still work with Pokémon without being a trainer such as a Pokémon watcher, doctor, breeder or a researcher like myself."

Ash shook his head, "No, I can do it! I'm gonna be a Pokémon trainer and become the world's greatest Pokémon master!"

Oak nodded knowingly and said, "Alright, then make sure you're here at 6am sharp and are ready to work."

"Yes sir Professor Oak!"

No matter how excited Ash was that week about finally being able to work with Pokémon, mornings would never be Ash's thing while he tried to stifle another yawn his first Saturday as Professor Oak gave him instructions on feeding, grooming, examining, cleaning up in addition to what behavior to watch for in each individual Pokémon while doing all of this. It also didn't help that Professor Oak didn't ramble on when he was working like he did when he was talking about poetry, making it difficult for the groggy, soon to be eleven-year-old to keep up with the sharp-minded Professor.

"…And if this oddish is keeping to itself rather than joining the others during feeding, then it's best if you gently coax it over rather than feed it away from the others or having me feed it. It's had very little socialization since it was hatched, so I want it to interact with more Pokémon and different people. Are you getting all of this Ash?"

Ash covered his mouth as he tried to hide another yawn, "Yes Professor."

"Good, but if you need to take notes don't hesitate. In fact," the Professor reached into his lab coat and from it pulled a small, unused notebook with a pikachu design and matching pen, "I'm going to ask that you take them anyways, that way even on your trainer's journey you'll never have to worry about trying to remember your lessons here."

"Thanks Professor!" Ash took the stationary, grateful the Professor had thought ahead, though thinking back to the Professor's office covered in stack upon stack of papers, Ash thought maybe he was in the habit of always carrying an extra on him.

"Anytime Ash, who knows, you might make some amazing discoveries yourself and I'll get to say I was the one who got you started!" Professor Oak said grinning ear to ear.

Ash smiled sheepishly in return rubbing the back of his head. Even though the Oak's had always been there for Ash and his mom, it still felt awkward for the young teen to be treated like he was family and not just another neighbor. Ash mentally shook away the lingering thoughts he had on the topic of family and eagerly changed the subject, "I have a question Professor."

"Oh, about what? Do I need to repeat anything?"

"No, well maybe, but I want to know more about the ghost Pokémon in the forest."

Oak look slightly surprised by the sudden change of topic, "What specifically?"

"Why do they live there? I read about how they like old and abandon places like Lavender Town, and that abandoned supermarket in Alola but I didn't see anything but trees when I was in there."

An odd look crossed the Professor's face that Ash couldn't quite describe other than his mom always had the same look whenever he asked about certain things like where Pokémon eggs came from.

He was afraid Professor Oak was going to tell him he'd have to wait until he was older but breathed a sigh of relief when he didn't, "Well Ash, I don't exactly know why ghost Pokémon have been attracted to there, especially since it's been fairly recent. I've tried to study the phenomenon for quite some time, but I almost got lost myself, even with a hoothoot I borrowed that knew foresight. Since then I've had to let Agatha handle it."

"Oh, well does Agatha know?"

The Professor's face split into a pained smile, "Wel if she does, she has yet to say anything beyond, 'You of all people should know that research takes time, so be patient!'" Oak said, poorly mimicking her voice and pretending to hold a cane.

"And you're going to wait even longer after that little act!"

Both Ash and Professor Oak jumped at the senior member of the Elite Four's sudden appearance.

Oak smiled sheepishly and looked down at his watch to avoid the boiling glare of his ex-wife, "Agatha, I-I wasn't expecting you for another hour. What brings you here this early?"

Agatha brought her cane down on top of Oak's head with fervor, "If you'd buy some hearing aids old man, you'd have heard your phone ringing for a good hour last night! I have an emergency meeting with the League officials today thanks to this ghost problem, so I have to survey the area now to bring them the latest data."

Professor Oak rubbed his head, with a sizable lump building up that made Ash hope he'd never be on the receiving end of a smack like that, "Alright, I'll go get Valley's pokeball. Ash follow me and take notes while I'm preparing Agatha's tauros for riding."

"A tauros? Sure thing Professor!" Ash said excitedly as he shadowed Professor Oak, scribbling down notes about the pokeball storage room, feeding and saddling up the tauros named Valley near the stables.

Agatha mostly remained quiet, other than the impatient tapping of her cane on the well-packed dirt floor, which Ash found anxiety-inducing when added to her still angry glare and occasional odd glances at Ash. When Oak was finished, Agatha skillfully pulled and seated herself in the saddle that made Ash think the cane might have been for looks but the knowing smile Agatha gave him made him take back the thought, now nervous that she had learned to read minds from all that time she spent training ghost Pokémon.

"I'll be back before noon Sammy boy. If I'm not, then you know who to call."

Oak looked taken aback, "You're not seriously expecting that kind of trouble, are you?"

Agatha laughed, "You know I always expect trouble Samuel. If not, I would have more than a bad leg," she said glancing at Ash before snapping Valley's reigns, "Let's go girl!"

With a short bellow, Valley took off with Agatha toward across the field toward the haunted forest.

Professor Oak huffed, smoothed his lab coat out before turning to Ash, "Well, I think its time we get back to touring the corral and get to releasing and feeding the Pokémon."

"Before we do, I have another question Professor."

"Ask away Ash."

"Can Agatha read minds?"

Professor Oak shook his head, but not to say no, "Sometimes, I wonder that myself. But I don't think I'm brave enough to get hit on the head again to ask." He added with a chuckle before going back to the tour and reminding Ash to take more notes.

_…Into the Woods…_

As the trees grew thick above and the foliage on the ground became sparser, the air colder as the light waned, Agatha showed no sign of fear or discomfort, warmly humming away into the stagnate silence of the haunted woods. At least that's what she had been telling everyone that is. If anyone knew ghost Pokémon, it was the ghost champion of Kanto's Elite Four, and what lurked in the woods was no apparition. She kept going in deeper and deeper, until Valley had begun to resist Agatha's commands to move forward, clearly spooked at what lurked nearby.

Agatha gently pat the tauros and cooed, "Don't worry girl, I won't make you go any closer. That pure soul of yours can only handle so much." She jumped down and landed lightly on the forest ground, crunching softly on the dried pine needles as she continued forward alone.

Still humming away, Agatha nonchalantly walked into a growing mist that echoed of eerie laughter. It wasn't until the woods had taken on a menacing red hue that she finally stopped her causal trek and squinted into the fog with a sad smile.

"My boy, you know these tricks don't work on me. I've held off the League for as long as I could, but the Cameran Palace has made its stance clear, as I'm sure you already know." Agatha waited to see how they would react, for once being uncertain of what could happen.

The League and Cameran Palace had called an emergency meeting, one she hadn't formally been invited to, but was certainly not prohibited from either. If they had, her gengar Shadow wouldn't have gleaned this information so easily, which luckily gave her time to attempt to fulfill her ancestral duty once more.

She waited patiently until the laughing finally ceased and the fog whisked away to reveal a familiar white figure gliding along the ground toward her.

"I know many things Agatha, but this news of Cameran is not one of them," the figure said, its voice deep despite its whisper-like quality.

To this Agatha nodded, "As I had hoped. You may have become many an indecent thing Red, but a murderer is not one."

"You only say that because you know I cannot leave this place witch!" Red bellowed.

Agatha remained unflinching, "No, I truly believe you are still a decent person, as much as I believe you can rid yourself of this twisted aura. But as I said, the League has me backed into a corner, they are ready to arrest you for the murder of three new trainers, all three with their life forces sucked dry."

"So why not let them? You know as well I that-"

"Don't you start on that cliché villainous monologuing Red, you're not fooling anyone, especially not this old gal. My family has instructed dark aura users for centuries and not one has ever learned to use dark aura without first becoming a bit phantasmal like yourself right now."

Even with an unreadable face, Agatha could feel Red's sarcasm and contempt, "Don't you get smart with me boy. You know as well I, that you're far from the worst. Sir Aaron went through this stage three times before he got it right!" Agatha paused, solemnly looking down before continuing, "Unfortunately for you, it will only be twice. If we had more time I'm certain you could have become an excellent guardian, but now that we know the Shadow Force cultists have been revived, it would only be a matter of time before the League and Cameran Palace begin to pursue dark aura users again."

Agatha looked up at Red again and lightly pressed the top of her cane to reveal a small, lightly glistening black orb. She was uncertain how her long-time pupil would react. He had shown remarkable improvement since she had brought him here, like many dark aura users in the past. Mew's presence in these woods had always had a soothing effect on dark aura and with time would render its more chaotic elements, that likely drew from one or more of the legendries' realms, almost completely inert. It was only in extreme cases that anything more would need to be done, as she would now have to do with Red.

He glared, the air becoming notably colder, "An oblivion orb. Wouldn't it be enough to seal away my power?"

Agatha again shook her head, "I'm afraid not. Your memories put you at risk without aura to hide them, especially since you've seen the boy now as well."

Red thinly smiled, "So you do know of his abilities. I thought it was odd he had no knowledge of this place with that much raw potential. I was certain you had no knowledge of him, but clearly, it's quite the opposite. You've chosen to shield him. Why?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that Red, it wasn't my call."

Red frowned, "Then who?"

Agatha sighed, "It doesn't matter, times are changing. If anything, he's being spared the painful life that all the others before him were unable to escape," she brought her finger down on the orb and it started to glow, "As you shall now as well."

The orb flashed and Red recoiled as the light hit him, saturating his body with a blinding light as he screeched out without noise as Agatha watched threads of blue, green, red and yellow energy draw out of his body and into the orb. Agatha watched on and waited until Red's body was left with only the faint blue aura that all living beings possessed before she tapped the orb again and snapped her cane shut. Red's unconscious form crumpled to the ground with a thud as a heap of tattered, unwashed clothes, grown out hair covering a malnourished, but steadily breathing body.

Agatha somberly walked over to look on her final pupil. She knelt down to gently pat his head and placed a thick envelope addressed to him before standing back up, letting out a heavy breath, "I hope you find peace in your new life…thank you for saving my son and I will always watch over yours as well."

With that, she turned around, made her way back to Valley and headed back to Oak's corral.

_…The Ketchum's Home that Evening…_

After a long first day working at Professor Oak's, Ash's energy levels had plummeted in a way that not even the soon to be eleven-year-old's ambitious appetite could fix. But being tired did little to deter him from going back over the notes he had taken and nervous excitement he could feel like a swarm of butterfrees in his stomach. He knew that with these notes and training under Professor Oak himself that there was no way he wouldn't become a Pokémon master and he even had some ideas of what Pokémon of each type he could train to get there. Gary always bragged about catching them all, but Ash knew that wouldn't matter if he couldn't train them all as well.

As Ash daydreamed on about which Pokémon he try to catch first, his mom urgently called for him that snapped him from his thoughts, "Ash! The League is making an important announcement! You need to get down here quick!"

_An announcement? Oh, I bet it has to do with that meeting Agatha was talking about!_

Ash leapt up from his bed and ran down the stairs just in time to see the current Kanto Champion, the Dragon trainer Lance, step up to the podium and begin the announcement.

"Good evening Kanto, thank you all for gathering here at this late hour, though I wish it was under different circumstances. Last night another unprovoked attack targeting new trainers was carried out on Route 4 near Cerulean City. The Wallflowers of the Cerulean Gym with help from the G-Men were able to confirm that the attack and subsequent death of one of the trainers was carried out by an unknown Pokémon of an unknown type and move set."

The crowd on TV murmured anxiously as Delia and Ash both waited tensely, and Lance signaled for the audience to quiet down so he could continue.

"After the previous two deaths near Vermillion City and on Cinnabar Island in addition to at least twelve other attacks on young trainers that have been confirmed, it is the Leagues' decision to raise the minimum age of Pokémon trainer licensing to sixteen in addition to requiring official League sponsorship and graduating from a trainer's school effective immediately. There will be additional new regulations and adjustments to current ones, but until we know what kind of Pokémon we are dealing with and why it is targeting new trainers, we feel this is the safest course of action until we know more. Any current trainers under the age of sixteen will be asked to go to and remain at the nearest Pokémon center and await further instructions. We hope this will only be temporary. I will now take your questions."

Ash's mom continued to watch on intently as the press threw a whirlwind of questions at the Champion but Ash had stopped listening after Lance had announced that he was going to have to wait another five years to start his journey if it didn't end up being more. He felt his mom pat his back and say something soothing to him, but the ten-year-old could only think about what he was supposed to do for five more years if he wasn't going to be starting his journey as a Pokémon trainer.


	4. Ash Ketchum is a Part-Timer!

Hey everyone, Random Ramune here! I hope you're all healthy and doing what you need to so to stay that way!

First sorry for the late update! February was, to say the least, extremely hectic. And March isn't shaping up to be any better.

My university has switched everything online, which would be great if I wasn't in grad school and needed to do field research now for my capstone.

Right now I'm in the epicenter in Washinton State, so basically everything is closed down and toilet paper is scarce, but tissues aren't so no worries *laughs nervously*

Social distancing comes easily being an introvert and a nerd, but just like not touching your face, the outdoors has become extremely tempting even without Pokemon Go community day...

However it is almost spring break, so after I am done with finals I'll likely spin around in my office chair, regret that, and then find something more productive to do with my time like working on this fanfiction! Just like right now, writing instead of sleeping because I'm too anxious to fall asleep...*slightly maniacal nervous heckling*

So make sure you all stay healthy, wash your hands while singing the Pokemon theme song (40-60 seconds), don't touch your face, stock up for social distancing but don't hoard! Just enough for you and anyone you live with and buy fun things too, not just rice, Spam and beans! Your taste buds, gut, and toilet will thank you! We'll all get through this! "Our courage will pull us through!"

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Chapter 3: Ash Ketchum is a Part-Timer!

_...Four Years and Eleven months later at Flaffy Mart…_

"I'm sorry miss that promotion only runs at Dawson's convenience store, as we don't carry-"

"Well, why don't you have it here? If Dawson's has it then it should run here as well!"

"Again miss I'm sorry but the two for one jelly doughnut special runs at Dawson's. If you like I can direct you to-"

"I know where Dawson's is and I don't want to make another stop on my way home today! Now are you going to give me the promotion or do I need to ask for your manager child?"

Ash smiled wearily, trying to hide his growing irritation at the middle-aged women's obstinance. He could safely assume she was new to Pallet given that in the past year he had worked at Flaffy Mart they had never carried jelly-filled donuts and instead stocked more traditional Kantoian foods like onigiri. Normally Ash would be more than happy to ask his manager to handle this, except his manager also ran the new local post office and was on his weekly run to Viridian City to pick up Pallet Town's mail now that the Pidgey Post was officially gone.

"The manager isn't here right Miss, but he should be back later this evening if you wish to ask him."

"Didn't you hear a word I said? I want to finish up here and go home! Get him on the phone or does this backwater town not have those as well?"

More than anything Ash wanted to tell her off and give the snubble-faced old coot a taste of her own medicine. His anger spiked, but just before he could a loud bang and subsequent clatter of canned food hitting the floor made both their heads turn toward the back of the store in time to see a yellow blur dash through the store and out through the front door.

"Not again!" Ash exclaimed before running around the counter and herding the older lady out the front door, gladly ignoring all of her less than kind remarks, "I'm sorry Miss you'll have to come back another time while I take care of this! But Dawson's has an excellent fried chicken special you should check out! Thanks for coming!" He added before he locked the door and watched the last customer for the day storm off toward the Dawson's that was just across the street.

Ash let out a sigh of relief, feeling a tad guilty about having someone else deal with her, but at least Dawson's manager was there most days unlike his. He took a final look outside to make sure he hadn't shut out anyone else, at least anyone he knew, before he hung up the charming "We're closed! See you later cowboy!" sign, pulled the large, yellowing window shades down and turned his attention to the fallen display of Yamper's Canned Curry.

Ash crossed his arms and glanced over his shoulder and said, "You know what a pain that display is to set up. You'd better help pick everything back up."

"Pika, pikachu?"

Ash looked down at the electric rodent that had quietly walked up to his side, head tilted as he asked a question.

"No, I'm not mad, just frustrated. And I'm not the only one annoyed with the old coot."

"Pi, pika, pikachu pi?" Pikachu asked with a wide-eyed innocence that Ash knew was anything but.

"No, you're not going to blow the circuit breakers in her house and blame it on rotom like you did to Mr. Aki, twice. Now help me clean up this mess so we can go do something that's actually fun."

"Pika!"

While he couldn't translate word for word, or "pika" for word, that the semi-wild mouse had said, Ash clearly understood the meaning of Pikachu's "pikas," along with every other Pokémon he had encountered since that mew had rescued him from the ghoul woods.

_…Almost five years ago…_

At first, it was exciting, especially after Professor Oak was unable to attain the researcher's exception to the new age rule that he had been able to for Gary, though that was mainly because his mom refused to sign the form, saying he could wait. Gary had decided that he couldn't wait another five years and under the supervision of his dad Blue, he got to start his Pokémon journey at eleven while everyone else was stuck in Pallet Town's cramped public-school system. While he wouldn't be eligible to earn badges until he was sixteen, he was allowed to catch and train wild Pokémon of his own while Ash had to beg his mom to let him keep working on Oak's ranch.

Ash didn't know why, but whatever hesitancy his mom had, had about Pokémon turned into a full-blown phobia that he couldn't understand. It was enough that he ran away from home and to Professor Oak's when his mom blew up at him, comparing him to the father he never knew in the worst way possible after he applied for the Pokémon watching elective class. The Professor managed to smooth things out, but Ash couldn't shake the feeling that his mom would never approve of him working with Pokémon in any capacity no matter how responsible he was. After the third fight they had that led to Ash knocking on the Professor's door, they worked out an arrangement that ultimately led to Ash working and living at Professor Oak's.

There might have been a chance that Ash and his mom could get along, but after she refused to help support him unless he lived at home when he turned fifteen. When she wouldn't tell Ash why she wanted to keep him away from Pokémon, why she hated Pokémon and his deceased father so much, Ash's response was to work part-time so he could continue to live at Professor Oak's. Oak said it wasn't necessary and that he would talk to his mom, but Ash was tired of her having control of his life and wanted to support himself. Even after the Professor told him his work around the ranch was more than enough to cover his expenses, Ash couldn't bring himself to not help out, not after everything the Professor had done for him. Oak would try to remind him that his mom loved him and just wanted the best for him the way she knew how, but Ash couldn't shake the feeling that it was less about love and more about fear as he had gotten older. This ended up making more sense as he spent the majority of his time with Pokémon thanks to his ability to instinctively understand them.

At first, it was the coolest thing in the world. To his eleven-year-old self, it was like waking up with superpowers, able to do something that no one else could. He quickly came to learn that not everyone, or rather almost everyone, around him shared his enthusiasm. While most people wrote it off as childish fantasy or as a coping mechanism to the new league rule, others branded it as weird and that there was something wrong with him. He would have kept insisting to others he could if Agatha hadn't intervened.

Ash was still under the impression she could read minds, even now he wasn't entirely unconvinced that she couldn't, but he had broken down after one of his classmate's parents had pulled their kid out of his class claiming Ash was a bad influence and "needed serious help." Whatever fears he had, had of the older women greatly dissipated after she talked to him.

"Why-why don't they believe me? What's wrong with understanding Pokémon?" Ash had said while he wept in the stables next to Agatha's tauros.

"My dear boy there's nothing wrong with understanding Pokémon. And there's nothing wrong with you." Agatha started before Ash interrupted.

"Then why did they pull Leaf out of my class? They said I needed help. One kid called me freak even!"

"Well, that's because there's something wrong with them, not you. They listen to the voice of fear inside them whenever they encounter something they don't understand instead of trying to understand it, even just a little. And the more they listen to that ugly little voice, the more they shut themselves off to this wonderful world and the joy that's in it."

Ash started to calm a bit, "But, why would someone do that? Doesn't it feel bad to feel scared all the time?"

"It does, but sadly they're used to it. They've forgotten what it's like to experience anything else. And it's very easy to give into fear, it's a powerful emotion that's supposed to help us survive, ready us to fight or run, but it can quickly devolve into anger and panic, and violence when that's all you know." Agatha said solemnly.

"Then, how do you get them to stop? I tried to explain but they wouldn't listen. They just kept talking about me like they couldn't hear me."

Agatha shrugged her shoulders, "Damned if I know. I've trained ghost Pokémon all my life trying to figure out why other people saw scary monsters where I saw the loyalist and kindest creatures I've ever known. I mean how can someone look at the cute little face of a dreepy or the floating fluffball of a ghastly and think 'monster?'"

"But don't ghost pokemon like to scare everybody? What about that colony of ghosts in the woods you were studying? Aren't they dangerous?"

Agatha shook her head and with a glimmer in her eye said to Ash, "Nope, and I'll let you in on a little secret if you promise not to tell a soul that is."

Ash's eyes widened, "Really?"

Agatha nodded, to which Ash nodded eagerly, pretending to zip his mouth shut like a banette that Agatha smiled widely at, "Alright then, the truth is, there are no ghosts in the forest here in Pallet."

Ash's jaw dropped with a gasp and was about hurdle an avalanche of questions, but Agatha put her finger up, signally for the youth to wait.

"However, there is, or was, something dangerous, which I know you saw. I can't tell you much other than it wasn't a ghost, and it's gone now. However, others like it have taken its place and not just in Kanto. Those are the mysterious Pokémon you've heard about and you'll keep hearing about, I guarantee. And I can also guarantee that not one of them, including the one that I tried to help here in Pallet, would have ever become a danger if people hadn't listened only to the fear in their hearts. Fear and ignorance create monsters, and nothing is a monster unless we start calling it that. Always remember, it's the things we do and say to 'monsters' that are the real monster."

Ash squinted his eyes, uncertain if about what he was feeling, "But, that Pokémon, it killed people. Doesn't that make it or them bad? Doesn't that make being scared bad?"

"It makes their actions bad, yes, very bad. But they didn't start that way, they started out afraid because they were labeled a monster. And instead of saying no, I'm not a monster, or I'm not a freak, they decided to believe it and forsake their humanity."

"Those pokemon were actually humans?!" Ash blurted out which earned him a glare from Agatha.

"I'm not supposed to be telling you this, remember?"

Ash shrunk down and after a brief silence, Agatha continued, "Yes, they aren't Pokémon but humans, but I'm afraid they've forgotten that as well after so much…after so much that has happened. I do my best to remind the League of this too, but they've always preferred doing things quick and dirty. Anyways, the point of this old women's rambling is that you, my boy, are not a freak and there is nothing wrong with you. Different, but not wrong. But because humans are fearful, you'd be wise to keep your gift secret for now."

"…Like you do. Right?"

Agatha gave the boy a soft grin, "Now are you certain you are understanding Pokémon with your ears or could it be something else?"

Ash furrowed his brow, looked down and then up at Agatha's tauros squinting as she chewed on some hay, "Uh, pretty sure they have to be talking first for me to understand them."

Agatha lightly tapped the boy's head with her cane in response, "That's not what I meant, but that will have to wait for another day. So, for now, keep this between you and I. Keep practicing, but I wouldn't recommend with the Pokémon here at the ranch. If they start behaving too friendly towards you too easily it will draw attention and with the questions."

"Then what Pokémon do I practice with?"

"These woods are brimming with wild Pokémon. And now that you know there are no ghosts, I'd say there's a lovely meadow with plenty of privacy for you to explore."

Ash's eyes lit up. A secret meadow to himself with who knew what kind of wild Pokémon. It might not have been an adventure on the road, but it was at least one thing that Gary and the other trainers wouldn't have.

_…Present Day, the Forbidden Woods of Pallet…_

Before entering the woods, Ash made sure to take a good look around, checking with Pikachu that the coast was clear, before climbing through the gap in the fence that Agatha had left for him when he first started coming to what was now know as the Forbidden Woods. It wasn't the best nickname, mainly because anything that was labeled as forbidden acted as a lure for bored teenagers entering their rebellious stage. Agatha thankfully had a solution to that as well, which involved some of her more prankster-ish ghost Pokémon acting as guards. And if Ash happened to be around, the gengar and haunter always enjoyed having a moving subject to throw an illusion over. While Ash still didn't like that he had to keep his ability a secret, it did allow him to gain a much-needed edge that made up for what he lacked in the domestic life of an increasingly Pokémon-less world.

It didn't take long for Ash to reach the meadow where he and the other Pokémon had set up a makeshift fort of sorts. There wasn't much to it from the outside, a discrete dome of sticks, twigs, leaves and sheaths of bark held together by caterpie and weedle silk, the inside, however, was another story. Ash crawled through the small opening and dropped down to the floor that had been dug out by himself and the couple sandshew that stayed in the fort on a regular basis. In the center was a large, flat stone that they had unearthed and after the addition of a couple of logs, it had been made into a table with some stumps and logs to act as chairs and benches for both Pokémon and humans. To the side was a bed, the frame made in the same manner as the hut's roof but with older blankets and padding that Ash brought in. Hanging from the ceiling were three electric lanterns that were designed to be recharged by electric Pokémon for traveling trainers. What was Ash's favorite part was the decorations that the various Pokémon that visited brought in.

Colorful pebbles, feathers, scales, berries, bits of cloth, thread, paper, and other small human-made objects were attached together with Pokémon silk and hung across the space that in the light of the lanterns reminded Ash of a clear night sky. Whenever books or his teachers talk about Pokémon as if they couldn't think or feel, he wished he could show them this and tell them how wrong they were. Course if he did that he'd have to explain a lot more than just how Pokémon create art.

"Hey, how's everyone doing?" Ash asked as his question was answered by a small chorus of chirps, squeaks, clicks and various Pokémon talking using their name. Most everyone answered good, fine, sleepy or hungry, with no one hurt or missing. A weedle to his side enthusiastically jabbered on about how he was getting ready to become a kakuna and asked if he could evolve in here.

"Sorry weedle, but after a metapod that evolved into butterfree got stuck in here a couple of years ago, we all decided it was best that no one did. But you'll be safe outside. That silk you guys spun to hold this place together and use to evolve is some pretty tough stuff!"

"Pi, pika." Pikachu nodded sternly in agreement as he leapt down to join Ash before scampering up the staircase of branches to his personal perch.

"You're still sore about that? We got all of caterpie's silk out of your coat didn't we?"

Pikachu scowled, "Pikachu, pi, pikapi."

"Heh, heh, well at least we know not to use the move acid again now."

"Pi?"

"You know I don't mean it's going to happen again, at least not like that."

"Pika…" Pikachu gave Ash a look of pure exasperation, before shaking his head knowing that there were no guarantees of anything not happening again with Ash around. In reply, Ash smiled sheepishly. He knew Pikachu better than any other Pokémon in Pallet and while he couldn't read Pikachu's thoughts, he was able to sense his emotions. If they were really strong, he could feel them like they were his own too. And if he was with Pikachu all the time, well that's something he would have to wonder about another day.

So many times Ash wished he could move out here and live with the Pokémon, instead of living as the weirdo who thought he could talk to Pokémon and more recently the weirdo who still thought he could make a career out of being a Pokémon trainer. To become a Pokémon master. Even the Oaks had been forced to reckon with the times as the mysterious people, largely assumed to be an unknown Pokémon, kept attacking. There still seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the attacks either and whenever he pressed Agatha for more information, she told him not now, but someday.

He used to think that it was because he was young and just a kid, but in the past few months, he began to suspect that wasn't the only reason. More than likely, it had to do with the reason why he could talk to Pokémon and feel what Pikachu was feeling.

_"Those two things and…"_

Ash flopped onto the bed, causally lifted up his hand above his head and while taking deep breaths, closed his eyes began to focus, keeping them closed until he could feel it humming in his hand and opened them when the Pokémon around him clamored in excited.

"Look he's doing it again!"

"That's so cool!"

"Oh teach me to that! I want to know that move too!"

At his fingertips was a small blue sphere of energy, about half the size of an expanded Pokeball, that rotated slowly until Ash let it dissipate to the disappointment of the audience.

"Pikachu, pika, pikachu!" Pikachu said as he shooed the other Pokémon away, back to their own business while he jumped down to Ash's bed. "Pikapi?"

"I'm fine Pikachu, just wanted to see if I could do it again. Make sure it wasn't a fluke."

"Chu, pika, pikachu?"

"Yeah, I agree. I think it's time to ask Agatha what this is really all about."


	5. Blue's Homecoming

Hey everyone, Random Ramune here!

Because the last chapter was technically for last month, I decided to keep going and so that this month's chapter would be released this month.

**Also thanks for sticking with me through all of the world-building chapters and introducing it all! We won't be stuck in Pallet Town too much longer!**

So a couple of updated notes: There will be the occasional original pokemon, but more than likely they're going to be regional types of pokemon that don't have a regional type.

Since the Galar region is still unfolding in the anime and the expansions are still a ways away from being released (June 2020 and Fall 2020), some Galar region based content will be mostly speculative or non-cannon. But I'll try to keep it close to cannon and cannon friendly for the most part.

Aura guardian lore will deviate from cannon, which is a big part of the AU in this story. I'm also taking liberty with the character relations since I'm drawing from both the anime and manga. I don't plan on adding any original characters as main characters, mostly for the challenge of hunting through pokemon lore.

And I will be going back through each chapter to clean up any typos and flush out any areas that need clarification and the like.

Don't forget to subscribe/follow!

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Style Key:

_Italics with ellipsis - ...Setting, Time Skips..._

_Italics in Quotes - "Ash's thoughts"_

Pokemon names - all lower case means species - pikachu

Upper Case means that's how they're addressed - Ash's Pikachu

Will add more as needed!

Chapter 4: Blue's Homecoming

_…Evening, Professor Oak's Ranch…_

While Ash would have loved to spend more time with the wild Pokémon, the early spring weather didn't allow it, namely the cold that threatened to bring snow again even as the cherry blossoms tried to bloom. That and Professor Oak had been preparing for Blue and Gary's visit later that week, their first in over two years. Ash had been helping of course, though not as enthusiastically as the giddy grandfather.

A gust of wind hit Ash as he walked through the gate to inner corral closest to Oak's laboratory and home, prompting him to zip up the blue windbreaker he had thrown on over his black t-shirt earlier and drew his red and white League cap closer to his head. It was the same hat his dad used to wear, or so he had been told, and the only thing left of him that his mom hadn't thrown out. But his mom's actions didn't matter now, in three weeks he could sign the trainer form without a guardian's signature and thanks to all the work he had done for Professor Oak, he didn't even have to attend the trainer's school for the next two years like everyone else. And even if they decided to increase the length of the trainer's school requirement, Oak had already signed off on five years' worth thanks to Ash working through the summers.

In less than a month, Ash would get to begin his journey. He had even heard the Professor on the phone ordering in the first batch of starters for the next class of Pokémon trainers to head out of Pallet. But Ash already knew which Pokémon he wanted as his first starter, as long as Pikachu didn't mind getting caught in a pokeball this one time. He remembered how scared Pikachu had first been when they first met thinking Ash wanted to catch him, which led to an initial, shocking reaction. After Pikachu realized Ash didn't have any pokeballs and could understand him, it only took a few poffins and a bottle of ketchup to break the ice.

As Ash approached the house, the first thing he noticed was Professor Oak complaining loudly, about what Ash couldn't tell but Oak having complaints over the phone was hardly an uncommon occurrence. About what could be summed up in two words, "the League." What was uncommon was to hear someone else respond to said complaints. And tonight, that meant one thing, Blue and Gary were home early.

Ash ran the rest of the way to the house, more nervous than excited, being he was already late getting back. He opened the back door and said, "I'm home," while taking his jacket and shoes off, slipping on his indoor slippers.

Professor Oak back entryway to greet him, "Ah welcome home Ash. You're late getting back. I tried to call your work but no one picked up."

"Sorry about that Professor. That wild Pokémon snuck in again and made a mess, so I had to close up early. I tried to track it down but I'm beginning to think it's a rouge kecleon."

"Humph, more likely a trained one with a delinquent trainer, but we can talk more about that later. Blue just arrived and Gary is due to be here within the hour."

Oak and Ash walked toward the Professor's modest but cozy living room, "Really? Wasn't it going to be another week?" Ash asked.

"Originally, but Blue had some news he wanted to share in person with all of us."

As they entered Blue stood up with a wide grin over his face, "Ashy boy! It's great to see you again! Oh, wow you've gotten tall! You and Gary are making me feel older than all this gray hair on my head, ha-ha!"

Ash slightly grimaced at being called 'Ashy boy' but that was hardly his biggest worry, "It's great to see you too Blue! Professor Oak told me you decided to come early."

"And without a phone call to let his father know," Oak added.

"Ah don't fret over the house dad, you know I don't care about that. It looks plenty clean."

Oak sighed but decided to move on, "Anyways it's great to have you and Gary home, especially since it's his birthday tomorrow. How long do you think you'll be staying before heading out?"

Blue glanced up, "Well, that in part is why we're here early. As I told you earlier on the phone the League is starting up a new program in response to the wild Pokémon attacks."

"Yes, the new companion program to the Pokémon Rangers, but it's supposed to operate under the authority of the G-Men if I recall correctly," the Professor said as both he and Ash took a seat.

Blue nodded, "Yep, the Guardian Initiative, named after the old legends of Sir Aaron and Cameran Palace. They're one of the major financiers of the expansion, so naturally, they would have a say in the name."

"That's surprising, Rota and Queen Ilene normally avoid dealing with the League like it's a rampaging gyarados."

Blue laughed, "I said the same thing when I first heard, they're still not too keen on the idea. It seems like it wasn't their idea either, at least not the Queen's, but rather her new advisor. Someone by the name of Riley but finding any information on him has been difficult."

"Hmmm, so exactly where do you come in? This doesn't exactly seem like gym leader business."

Blue's relatively relaxed demeanor suddenly shifted at Professor Oak's question, "Well, that's the news I came to share. I was going to wait until Gary got here, but given he already knows the gist, I suppose now will be fine as well. Part of the Guardian Initiative is setting up the new training facilities in all the gyms across Kanto, Johto, and Hoenn. If that goes well, they'll be introduced to all gyms in all regions, even the stadium-based gym system in Galar. But the gym leaders will have no say in the Guardian's operations in their own gyms. I made several requests for more details, especially since the Guardian's will be a part of the badge granting process, but all of it is under lock and key, unless I agreed."

"You've resigned haven't you," Oak interjected, a statement and not a question.

Blue shrugged and gave a halfhearted coy smile, "Yeah, retired for personal reasons, the only other option was they fire me, I lose my pension and go out with a bunch of bad press instead of kudos for my twenty years of service."

"Who's going to run the gym if you aren't? How are they going to find someone right before the next League season starts?" Ash asked, finally unable to stay quiet.

"I'm not sure, but there's talk of the previous Viridian gym candidate from when I first started taking over."

"Who's that? I remember your classmate Amarillo was considered despite not having any badges, but last I heard she was still conducting research on legendary Pokémon in the Sevii Islands," the Professor asked.

"It's definitely not Amarillo, she's strong enough to take on two of the elite four at once, but she hates battling with a passion. And old Giovanni has already declined and is staying in retirement. But his son Silver would be a likely candidate."

"Ah yes, he would be. He's come quite a long way since he was a kid too. I remember one of my colleagues at what's now Professor Elm's lab, raving mad about a red-haired kid that stole one of the starter Pokémon. It wasn't until much later that he learned it was Silver. I always thought you were a handful, but Silver had you beat after that with no doubt!"

Ash stifled a snicker while Blue dryly replied, "Yeah, thanks dad. That reminds me, have you gotten your shipment of starters yet?"

Professor Oak now had Ash's undivided attention. While Ash knew he was going to ask Pikachu to join him, it was still League rules that every new trainer start with a power rank level five official starter Pokémon to compete in their first year. It was the one Pokémon you couldn't switch out of your party or trade as your ranking as a trainer and eligibility to participate in the Pokémon League tournament was also judged on how well you raised your starter. And if Professor Oak already had the starters, it meant that he would get to help take care of them and possibly pick out the one that was the best fit for him early.

But the Professor's frustrated huff didn't sit well, "Unfortunately no. They were supposed to be here yesterday, and I called around today, but I can't get a straight answer out of anyone."

"That's what I was worried about. There hasn't been an official release from the police yet, but it seems as though Team Rocket has been targeting breeding centers over the past few weeks. Claire from the Blackthorn Gym has been keeping me in the loop, but she's worried there might not be enough starters for all registered new trainers at the beginning of the year."

"What?" Ash exclaimed slightly startling the other two, "But what about wild Pokémon? Or the independent breeders? Can't the league approve those?"

"It's not quite that simple Ash. Starter Pokémon breeding is a very strict process and exceptions take time to approve, but I wouldn't worry too much yet. There's still plenty of time," Oak explained, but worry was still written all over his face.

Ash grimaced, he had already waited an extra five years and he didn't want to wait anymore.

"Well, there might be another option," Blue said with the same glint his eye that Agatha had when she had something up her sleeve, "But you'll have to wait until tomorrow."

"Why tomorrow?" Ash started to whine before a loud voice boomed out.

"Because I'm the birthday boy and if the birthday boy has to wait then you have to too!"

Ash turned to see Gary pulling off his coat and about to step from the genkan and into the house with his boots still on before Professor Oak stopped him, thrusting the house slippers in his grandson's face.

"Welcome back Gary, it's good to see you again."

"It's good to see you too Gramps," Gary said, sheepishly taking the slippers and quickly putting them on so Professor Oak would let him into the house, "So what do you have to eat, cause I'm starving!"

Ash was about to try and be the mature one, telling Gary to have some manners, except at that moment his stomach decided to growl like a singing wailord.

The two adults looked to each other before Professor Oak said, "How about we continue to catch up after we've all had some dinner. My cook made some excellent seasoned bamboo shoots and they're extremely fresh. Much better than tofu!"

_…The Next Day, Professor Oak's Ranch…_

For the most part, everyone got along, Gary was his usual self, loud, bossy, and extra self-indulgent due to it being his birthday. Ash wanted to believe he was better, more responsible, more mature, which lasted about five seconds after waking up late and finding out Gary had taken the last of the chocolate chip pancakes.

"You snooze you loose Ashy boy! Speaking of which, "Gary flipped out his phone and showed Ash the photo he had taken of him before he had woken up, with a face like a snorlax and obvious trail of drool.

"Ugh, you delete that right now! Birthday boy or not I'm gonna-"

"Oh for the love of mew will you two pipe down for five minutes! I haven't even finished my coffee!" the Professor reprimanded to the two teenage boys, while Blue yawned heavily.

"But he-" Both Gary and Ash said in unison before Oak spoke over them again.

"No buts! Unless you two want to spend the day shoveling the ponyta manure into the compost pile."

Both the boys grimaced, neither one wanted to spend their day off doing one of the worst jobs on Oak's ranch. Oak gave them a good long look before concluding they got the message, "Good, now hurry up and finish breakfast, I still have a lab to run and the sooner we get that out of the way, the sooner Blue here can introduce you to, well let's just say it's a surprise."

"What's a surprise?" Blue groggily asked.

"The one we stayed up last night discussing," Oak reminded him, but Blue just gave him a blank stare. Oak sighed and handed Blue a coffee mug, "You probably should wake up before you get out of bed."

While Blue struggled to join the living, Ash and Gary took no time to woof down breakfast and race each other to the ranch part of Oak's lab to release the Pokémon from their balls and get them ready for the day. Oak calmly watched the two over competitive teens finish the normal morning routine in half the time, impressed that they still took great care handling each and every single Pokémon.

"Well, I guess they really are both ready to train Pokémon on their own," Blue commented wistfully while working on his third cup of coffee.

"I don't know, imagine how much research I could get done if these two did this every morning."

"Dad…"

"Don't worry, I'm just joking. That's your job now son!" Oak said with glee.

Blue glanced over at the Professor, "You know maybe Professor Ivy needs an extra hand-"

"Oh don't be ridiculous Blue, you'd be right back here the moment she brought up that awful date you took her on. Oh, the boys are almost done and I can't wait to see the look on their faces!"

…In the field behind the Lab…

"Alright, so after you two went to bed last night, dad and I talked it over and we decided that if you, Gary didn't mind sharing your birthday a bit with Ash and if you Ash, didn't mind getting your present a few weeks early, that you'd both get your starter Pokémon today," Blue announced.

"Of course! I'm sixteen now and mature enough to share my special day with those who otherwise don't have the same level of patience as I!" Gary boasted.

"Well, I'm mature enough that I don't have to wait until I'm sixteen to be mature and mature enough to not need a present on my birthday!" Ash boasted as well, ending with an awkward silence.

"…Alright then. So, here we are!" Blue pulled out two standard pokeballs, one with Ash's initials engraved onto it and the other with Gary's. "When Clair first informed me that the Pokémon breeders had had their started Pokémon stolen, I decided to make some calls and it turned out that the Galar region had been considering a different selection of starters for beginning trainers that had more than two years of qualified Pokémon handling experience, which both of you have twice over. They're meant to be more difficult to raise and battle with to even out the playing field but they are also much rarer to find in the wild. Are you ready to meet them?"

"Yes!" Both boys exclaimed.

"Alright, hold out your hand. Gary here's yours and Ash here's yours."

As Blue put the pokeball in Ash's hand, he could hardly believe that this moment had finally come. The butterfrees in his stomach were almost too much to bear until he heard Gary shout, "Pokémon, I choose you!"

Ash looked over as Gary's pokeball snapped open, followed by a burst of white light that zig-zagged down to the ground. In quickly took shape, forming a fox-like body with two long tufted ears, a broad fluffy tail and after the light dissipated revealed dark gray fur with a fluffy white chest, paws and white-tipped tail.

"Eh-Voi?"

"Is that…an eevee?" Gary asked, his mouth slightly agape.

Blue smiled, "Yep, the Galar form was only recently discovered on the Isle of Armor. Breeders have been working with researchers to see what it's evolutions will look like or if it might have different evolutions even. Happy birthday son!"

"Ah! An eevee! This is amazing!" Gary bent down to Eevee's level and said, "Hi Eevee, I'm your new trainer. Are you up to winning the League tournament?"

Eevee cocked his head, looking at his new trainer before happily chirping, "Eh-voi!"

"That's the spirit!"

"You nervous Ash?" Professor Oak asked, prompting Ash to snap his attention back to his own pokeball.

"Nope! Ok, pokeball go!"

Ash threw out his pokeball just like he had practiced, first turning his hat around and tossing it just high enough in the air for the light to cascade down like a waterfall. It stopped just short of the ground, forming a serpentine body, short-clawed arms and legs, with a sleek triangular head with ear like ruffles. As the light faded the Pokémon's smooth skin turned out to be mossy, teal green, along with bright yellow eyes and markings at the tips of its head.

"Dreep?" Dreepy said, asking "Who are you?"

Since everyone was looking at him Ash pretended not to understand him and said, "Hi there, I'm Ash and I'm gonna be the greatest Pokémon master! So, would you like to be a part of my team?"

"Dreepy, dreep dree!" Dreepy replied, which Ash heard as, "Sure, that sounds like a lot of fun!"

"Alright! Welcome to the team Dreepy!"


	6. The Guardian Initiative

Hello all! I hope you're all staying safe and healthy!

For me, school is back in session but through the internet.

My area is under stay in place orders (Seattle, WA) and while I've been following it plenty (being an introvert is actually helpful now), it seems as though my neighbors (an apartment complex) don't have the same outlook and one has contracted the virus...

So please, please, please remember to social distance! The sooner the curve is flattened the sooner we can get to being outside playing Pokemon Go again!

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I'll answer your questions as best as I can, but there is only so much I can say or else I'd be spoiling my own story.

Thor94: I'm glad you find the story interesting so far and I hope it will continue to keep your interest! For Dark Aura, it's less of a traditional Pokemon rivals competing for badges to become a Pokemon Master, and more exploration/alternative universe of the concept of Aura in a slightly more realistic Pokemon world. The gym challenge and Pokemon master journey are still part of it, but it will be more of a side plot in this story.

Nafsika: Thank you so much for all the compliments and your excitement over the story and the characterizations, it really made my day! Don't fret too much over Ash and his mom, there's much more to Delia's side of the story. As for the Pokémon Ash will catch, I can't reveal too much partly because I haven't completely decided, though the focus will be a well-rounded team. As for the aura pokemon like Lucario, I don't plan on Ash having one which will make sense later in the story, but as he has the shiny Dreepy as his official starter (which is also a bit of foreshadowing), so he's got the dragon and ghost types covered.

On a side note (this is not an April Fools thing, promise! But watch out for those pranks!), for anyone working on the Dex in Pokemon Sword and Shield, if you have Let's Go Eevee or Pikachu, you can bring in a Kanto ponyta or farfetch'd to breed a Galar one! I just used a ditto for the breeding. For other Galar variants, you can bring them in from the older games through the Pokemon Bank to Pokemon Home and do the same.

As for the chapter, again there is world-building and lore reveal plus some new characters! It's mostly dialog, but the lore in it should make up for that. I plan on beginning Ash's journey in the next chapter and making it longer than my usual 3k-4k word length :)

This is unbeta'd.

Enjoy!

* * *

Chapter 5: The Guardian Initiative

_…Early afternoon, Cameran Palace…_

Agatha yawned as she leaned against her cane, fearing she would grow old, or older while waiting for the rest of Queen Ilene's guests to arrive unfashionably late in the eldest of the Elite four member's mind. That and the lazy spring sunshine filtering in through the stained-glass windows that resided in the lesser banquet hall were making her drowsier than a hypno's hypnosis attack. Even standing rather than sitting against the uptight butler's wishes wasn't doing much to keep her awake.

She glanced over at the butler again and asked, "So when are the rest of the guests expected to arrive again?"

The butler sighed, noticeably irked at being asked the same question five times in a row, "At a quarter to noon, though it is now half-past that. Are you certain you do not wish to take a seat? The Queen has refreshments prepared that you're more than welcome to while we wait for the arrival of the rest of the guests."

"And be impolite by seating and eating before her majesty? You young' ins need to brush up on your manners!" Agatha stoutly said with a strong thump of her cane on the thin carpet covering the stone floor to help emphasize her point.

The butler, who could only be five years younger than herself, sighed again, barely able to keep his contempt for her bottled inside his otherwise polished exterior.

Of course, Agatha was only berating the butler to keep herself amused and distracted, rather than focusing on the purpose of this little get-together. It had been a long time since she had been this nervous, few things got under her skin far enough to cause her this level of internal discomfort and being in Rota was one of them. The other being the topic they were to discuss.

A loud click followed by a whine from behind her stole her from her thoughts. She turned to see another palace servant escort in the rest of the people that made up this small gathering. First was the Queen, of course, dressed in a light blue spring weight dress with her long golden hair tied back into a loose ponyta-tail. Agatha gave a deep curtsy that she replied with a polite nod of her head before gesturing for Agatha to take a seat. While Agatha seated herself in the chair that the butler pulled out near the front of the table where the Queen was seated.

Across from her the Champion of the Elite Four, and her boss, known as Lance, took his place. He was dressed in his old red jacket and without his usual cape, likely to not draw as much attention to himself, curtly nodded his head toward Agatha which she returned in kind. Next to him sat a young man, fair and blond giving off confidence slightly subdued by discrete nervous, and was dressed in a Pokémon Ranger uniform that despite looking and smelling freshly cleaned and pressed, couldn't hide the wear and tear it had been through. And to her surprise, seated next to her was a man that could have passed as the reincarnation of Sir Aaron, with wild black hair only partly tamed by a wide-brim blue hat that matched his equally blue suit with a black turtleneck, and fierce blue-eyes that seemed to look through you that she knew was all entirely true. He reached his hands up to his neck to straighten his gold necklace with its design that most assumed was inspired by Sir Aaron's outfit, but Agatha knew better.

"It's good to see you again Agatha."

"Likewise Riley, or is it Sir Riley now?" Agatha asked.

Riley smiled warmly, "Just Riley though the Queen has made it abundantly clear she'd prefer it otherwise."

"Of course, you're the first Aura Guardian to grace the grounds in almost a millennium," Queen Ilene interjected which Riley returned with a polite smile before she continued, "So I suppose we should move on to what we are all here for. As you all know, the attacks on trainers in the last few years have substantially increased and have recently expanded beyond the Indigo Alliance with recent reports of an unknown pokemon attacking trainers in Sinnoh and Unova. In addition, it is no longer limited to trainers as Master Lance will explain."

Lance sternly nodded, "Yes, in the past few weeks my G-Men have reported that not only have they been attacked while undercover, but civilians without Pokémon in the smaller towns that they patrol have reported sighting of these attacks and in the case of the residents of Rota, have been directly attacked."

"As have the Rangers. Three of our Top Rangers have been attacked and in all the cases they're basically in the middle of nowhere," the blond Pokemon Ranger added.

"You'll have to forgive me for interrupting, but I didn't get your name earlier," Agatha quickly asked.

"Oh, sorry about that, Jack Walker, Top Ranger, but call me Jackie," Jackie replied.

"No need to worry, formalities often get forgotten in circumstances such as these," Agatha said before Lance continued.

"Yes and as we all know, the attackers aren't Pokémon and they aren't random," Lance picked up a small remote that had been present on the table, pressed several of its buttons to dim the lights, draw the automated shades on the windows and roll down the projector screen that was surprisingly old fashioned in comparison to the technology the Elite Four had at their disposal. With another click, a projector mounted behind them cast a slideshow describing the results of G-Men's' investigation of the attacks.

"With Riley's help, we were able to deduce that underlying connection between all of the victims was that they possessed the ability to use aura in some manner. Course the victims didn't know they could as did anyone else if it wasn't for Agatha's deduction of the attackers' identity."

"I wouldn't call it a deduction. They might as well have instructed a smeargle to graffiti the Elite Four headquarters with their name after they killed one of my gengar," Agatha spoke, her voice quivering from the rage she tried to suppress, "There are very few with the power and knowhow to kill a ghost pokemon, who are not actually ghosts given they are fully able to breed. Team Calamity is the one group that knows how and they are not to be trifled with. Team Rocket looks like a herd of psyduck and slowpoke in comparison."

"You'll have to catch me up to speed here, I wasn't told much prior to being invited outside of the nature of the attacks on my rangers. Who exactly is Team Calamity? And what do they want with aura users? And what is so important about aura users?" Jackie asked.

Lance responded in his usual clipped manner, "Team Calamity is what we plan to call the Cult of Giratina when we talk about them to the public. They're a group of Giratina worshipers seeking the end of the world. We believe that they're targeting aura users to find a fabled Chosen One who can free Giratina from the Reverse world."

Jackie started nodding and then shook his head, "Yeah, you lost me at the end of the world."

Riley and Agatha laughed silently before Riley continued, "It's a lot to take in, assuming you believe in legends and myths. It helps if you know what aura and what it does. Aura is an energy that is created by all living beings, human and Pokémon alike. Some humans and Pokémon are able to sense and use aura and in a variety of different ways. The one you've most likely heard of is the move aura sphere that most lucario learn to use, though mienfoo, mienshao and clawitzer have been known to learn it at a high level. But aura isn't limited an attack, it can be used to extend the natural senses, create defensive barriers, communicate with Pokémon non-verbally and forge bonds that transcend physical space, time and limitations."

"At least that's what normal aura does, dark aura, which is what Calamity uses, is a completely different matter," Lance interjected.

"Some of Calamity uses and they do so incorrectly, which is why they are dangerous," Agatha corrected before sternly adding, "Dark aura used correctly is the same as any other use of aura."

"Yes, my mistake," Lance conceded and Riley, unmoved by the short rebuttal, continued.

"And so you understand the difference between the two, dark aura is an old name for energy that is generated outside of this world. Instead of it coming from the living beings here, some humans have access to what are essentially the domains of legendary and mythical Pokémon, and the powers associated with them."

Riley looked expectantly at Jackie, "…I get the regular aura users' abilities, like Sir Aaron, but you're going to need to give me an example of what dark aura users normally can do."

Riley nodded, "So a common type of dark aura user is actually human psychics and among them, the gym leader Sabrina is one of the most prominent examples. It's more than likely that not only does she have a connection to the domain of a powerful psychic legendary, but it wouldn't be surprising she is able to draw from two or three."

"Two or three?" Jackie asked questioningly.

"It's not exactly a science mapping out the abilities of aura users," Agatha explained, "And there are a great deal of unknowns, especially since naturally accessing the domains of legendary god-like Pokémon is a rare occurrence. However, Calamity seems to have found a way to force this connection on any aura user and the results are the situation we are addressing today."

"Yes," Lance said, "While we don't have any definitive proof or understand how they are doing it, we speculate that they are forcing a connection between Giratina's domain, the Reverse World, and the aura users they are targeting. This results in either the person dying from the surge of power on the spot or going insane, turning into a ghoulish apparition and then dying, not unlike how dark aura users rampaged in the past."

"Very few dark aura users in dubious circumstances need I remind you again Master Lance," Agatha again corrected Lance giving him a glare, "We're trying to avoid the mass panic and genocide that plagued Rota after Sir Aaron's death. That is why I agreed to be a part of the Guardian Initiative, to avoid the mistakes of the Blackthorn Clan in past, not commit them all over again."

At this Jackie looked solemn, the tension between the Champion and the Elder noticeably thickening the atmosphere in the room where Queen Ilene worked her diplomatic abilities, "Yes, it was a grave tragedy which is why we are all in this room to prevent it. That and these lands have been without aura guardians of all kinds for far too long, enough that our connection, the connection between humans and Pokémon is waning rapidly without the training and recruiting there was in the past."

"Yes, which is why we asked the Pokémon Rangers to be the people in charge of the Guardian Initiative," Riley explained, "Of all the government groups, the Rangers are the most connected to a wide range of Pokémon and not just one type or team. I also suspect that current Ranger recruits more than likely are somewhat if not completely aura sensitive."

Jackie raised an eyebrow, "Really? What makes you say that? And while I get why you all have me here now as the head Top Ranger, exactly how do you expect me to determine who's aura sensitive and who's not? None of my rangers have shown anything in the slightest to what I've read about in the tales of Sir Aaron."

Riley chuckled lightly, "Well, only the exciting bits tend to make it through over a thousand years of retelling, but what I'll be looking for in your rangers are things that most people chalk up to as luck. Among these will be an unusually canny ability to run into rare or powerful wild Pokémon, Pokémon of a specific type, consistent above normal reaction time, resiliency or a strong gut intuition that drives their actions, many of these which I'm sure you have experienced on your missions no doubt."

Jackie seemed amused despite breaking eye contact with Riley and crossing his arms, "That's flattering and all, but that's just what happens when you've trained and spent as much time in the wild as I and any ranger who is or wants to be a Top Ranger has. Skill and experience, and luck or aura, in this case, are two very different things. It's going to take more something more concrete to convince anyone otherwise."

Riley still smiled and closed his eyes, "I can see your point, but would you indulge me a bit further?"

Jackie shrugged, "Sure, why not."

Riley nodded, opened his eyes, reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small cloth sack with a drawstring to hold it shut and handed it to Queen Ilene who opened it after Riley gestured her to do so. Inside it was a crystalline plant resembling a closed flower bud.

"Is this what I think it is?" Queen Ilene asked, eyes wide as she took in the faintly glittering plant.

"Yes, that's a time flower, an old tool of the aura guardians, or at least those with a high aptitude for aura use," Riley explained.

"Why only those with a high aptitude? Is it dangerous or difficult to use?" Jackie inquired, also taken in by the plant's beauty.

Riley shook his head to say no, "It's actually quite simple. All an aura guardian must do is touch it to activate it and it will show those around them the past of that space as if it's happening again. However, the user must have a certain level of ambient aura inside them for the flower to activate. I need to gather more before I can begin to cultivate them and find how to do so in Cameran Palace's libraries, but I do have enough to share with the Rangers to test who has a high enough aptitude to possibly begin guardian training here with me at Rota."

Riley gestured for the Queen to pass the flower around starting with Jackie as Jackie continued to question Riley, "And how exactly are the Ranger's supposed to know-Whoa!"

Jackie jumped up out of his chair as a bright blue light filled the room. As soon as Jackie held the flower began to glow and burst open into bloom, remaining that way even after Jackie had dropped the deceptively delicate looking flower back onto the table. From its petals, the light played out Jackie's last question to Riley as if it was happening again up until the moment he dropped it. After that, the glow died back, the petals closed up and the room became dark again aside from the light from the projector reflected off the screen.

"What was that?" Jackie exclaimed, looking over accusingly at Riley who had a somewhat smug look on his features.

"That was a time flower when activated by an aura user, which would be you, making for two of us in this room," Riley explained simply while Jackie gazed at the flower with an increasingly sober stare.

"…I see." Jackie sat back down, still staring at the flower, chin in hand, "And this is how you plan on finding out who has aura then?"

"This is just for now," Agatha added, "Riley is the only aura guardian who can actually assess and train anyone at the moment and to find enough people to have one guardian per gym in Kanto in the next three years, well without the flowers it will take decades when you include the skeptics. With these we can assess the Rangers and after that the gym leaders and trainers for adepts and offer them the training. Once we have enough people who can skillfully detect aura without using the flowers, we can then repeat the process in Johto and Hoenn and so forth."

Jackie half pouted, half smirked, "Detect without the flowers, meaning you already knew what the flower was going to do before I touched it then. I fell into that one fast."

"The flowers are still quite rare. I can't give them out to non-aura adepts who wouldn't understand their value beyond their beauty," Riley answered, "You were right, they are dangerous, mainly for what they could potentially show."

"Espionage you mean. The other reason why you need the Rangers," Jackie stated.

"As you know is a necessary evil when dealing with criminal organizations. I know the G-Men are as well, but when Lance introduced me to his ranks, very few showed any ability, and none had enough to activate the flower."

"A failing on my part," Lance said, "Many of the Pokémon the G-men use are trained at the Indigo Plateau for missions and to be used interchangeably between trainers. A personal bond wasn't deemed a necessity, only…skill as you put it Jackie."

"Which aura use still requires I'll remind you all," Agatha interjected again, to Lance's annoyance, "But none of this will move forward with words alone. So now that you know you have aura, do you want to learn to use it?"

Jackie cleared his throat and went back to crossing his arms, staring hard at the flower before closing his eyes, wondering if that faint blue hue he saw now with them closed had always been there. He opened them again and shrugged his shoulders, "Well it can't hurt to at least know. Whether or not I'll be any good, I'm not going to make any promises."

"That's fine, but I wouldn't be surprised if you turned out to be a natural," Riley assured, and Agatha nodded in agreement.

Looking to the clock, Queen Ilene began to rise and the others took the cue and followed suit, "I'd say the hardest part of this whole endeavor is out of the way and we'll have many more meetings to work out the details. For your initial training, you're more than welcome to stay here with Riley, along with any other potential guardians. After that, we've already made an agreement with the Viridian gym and their new leader to host our first guardian recruitment site for this year's Pokémon League conference, but more on that next time. Now if you will excuse me, I'm already a bit behind for my next meeting." Everyone gave a polite bow to Queen Ilene as she exited the room.

"Well I shall see you all next time, but for now I need to return to the Indigo Plateau and return to my normal duties," Lance said as he briskly left the room.

"And I'll need to put a request for a leave of absence, I'm legally due to take time off anyway. Just send me a message about the length of time along with anything else," Jackie told Riley to which Riley replied in kind, leaving him with a now much more relieved Agatha.

"Well, I'd say I expected that to go a lot less smoothly. Normally you can't get Lance to shut up," Agatha spoke while she proceeded toward the door and Riley returned the time flower to its pouch and followed her.

"I see you still haven't changed either sensei. Are all Blackthorns still a thorn to your side?"

"Oh very funny and no not all. Clair has a long way to go, but she at least doesn't rely on power to conquer everything."

"Is that your way of saying you're still upset that Lance defeated you and took your place as Champion?"

Agatha gave Riley the side-eye as they approached the stairwell that led to the gardens, "No, he won that fair square. It's because that's how he solves all his problems, including the things he's afraid of."

"Yes, I remember that lecture of yours. 'Seek to understand what you fear, and you will not fear it. Seek to destroy it without knowing it, and you will fear it forever.'" Riley recited.

"I'm impressed, you actually listened to me. You used to be such a daydreamer," Agatha reminisced.

"Yeah, contacting Giratina's domain, put some things into perspective," Riley said with less enthusiasm.

"As it has done for the descendants of Sir Aaron's family. But," Agatha emphasized, "You still need to be cautious. You may have control over your natural connection to Giratina, but we still don't know how Calamity is forcing this connection. And as Lance demonstrated, people still fear dark aura and would rather destroy it rather than understand it."

Riley reassuringly placed a hand on the older women's shoulder, "Don't worry sensei, I think you understand me well enough to not fear for me as you used to."

Agatha pretended to be unmoved before huffing, "Well if the both of you weren't such airheads all the time I'd be a lot less worried about what you might do!"

Riley tilted his head, "'Both of you'?"

Agatha grimaced, "Uh…"

"You've found another dark aura user?" Riley's face lit up, giving Agatha a flashback of the day she had taken him in, not long after the divorce that had left her empty and cynical.

She threateningly pointed her cane at him, "Don't you use that face on me!" But Riley continued to grin, waiting for Agatha to give. She finally looked away and exclaimed, "Oh fine, yes I have but I have no intention of training him, let alone inform him of his aptitude."

Riley's face dropped, "What? Why?"

"Because I made a promise to look after him. You already knew how to use aura when I took you in so there was no hiding it and training was the best option for you." Agatha didn't dare look at Riley, "There will be plenty of aura users to teach in the future. Some of them may even turn out to be dark aura users, but I need to let this one lead a normal life."

"Agatha-sensei, what you need isn't going to be what he needs. If he's already shown an aptitude for dark aura, he's eventually going to connect to Giratina's domain, if that's even one of the domains he'll connect to. Either way, he needs to be prepared, like how you prepared me."

Agatha remained silent and instead headed toward the garden's exit finally saying, "I'll think on it. For now, I need to get back to Pallet. It's my grandson's birthday and I have an abra scheduled to teleport me relatively soon. Oh, how is Lucario?"

Riley decided to not push the subject further, "He's…he's better, though I doubt he'll ever be comfortable with a dark aura user."

"I was afraid of that, Giratina's aura is overwhelming for most Pokémon, let alone those most sensitive to it. Not every Pokémon can be as stubborn as Sir Aaron's Lucario was. But it might be for the best, we are heading into unknown territory and we can't know for certain how the public will react to the…the past coming to life."

"Then it would be best if I got back to work on making the past fit to the present then. I'll keep you posted," Riley said before turning and walking back toward the castle.

It wasn't long before the Abra Man Teleportation service sent an abra to meet Agatha, still conflicted in her thoughts and was instantaneously transported to Professor Oak's front steps. There she was greeted by three genuine smiles, one polite one and a chorus of greetings. Of course, she met their enthusiasm with her own, teasing her grandson with his wrapped present and admiring his new eevee, but it took all her energy to hide the dread she felt at seeing Ash holding a dreepy. It was moments like this when she hated her own gifts, able to sense the bond between the yellow horned ghost dragon and his trainer was an omen of things to come.

* * *

Some post chapter notes:

I decided because ghost type pokemon are able to breed in the game that it would make more sense to have them not actually be the ghosts of dead pokemon, but rather have people assume they were ghosts. However, the Lavender Town ghost is still a ghost for the usual heartwrenching reasons.

For Team Calamity, yes it is a reference to my other favorite Nintendo game, and even though it isn't "realistic," I still want to keep some things in this AU similar to Canon such as the villainous Teams.

For the lore, this is where the world is heavily AU and won't remain true to canon. I didn't want to write a rewrite of the shows, manga, games, and movies since there are an abundance of those and I'd rather do something original.

Don't forget to fav/follow!


	7. Training Day

Hello everyone, I'm sorry for the delay, it has been a rough summer and a lot has been going on.

Long story short, got sick, not fun, MASK UP! Stay home if you're sick. Sharing is not caring when it comes to viruses. Or fire if you're in the western half of the US.

Still working on my Master's full time and will be busy applying to Ph.D. programs over the next few months on top of working, so my free time is limited, and mostly eaten up with medical stuff.

As I'm not able to dedicate the amount of time I had originally planned on to writing (this is creative writing across the board, so not only this story) my updates will be one a season, so every three months.

Thank you all for being patient with me! The next update will be late December.

Please stay safe, take care of yourselves, we all can get through this!

* * *

**Chapter 6**

_…Same Afternoon, Oak's Lab…_

"Welcome to the team dreepy!" Ash said while looking at his first Pokémon who cooed happily. Professor Oak turned to his son Blue with a quizzical look on his face, noting that little teal dragon was floating off of the ground, "Is it just me or is that a ghost type?"

Blue nodded, "Yep, a ghost and dragon type called dreepy. It's pretty rare, even in Galar, but Professor Sonia wanted data on how Pokémon from the Galar region would behave if they were raised in a different region. So I volunteered the two trainers I knew would be more than ready to gather the data she needed."

"Gather data? Don't you have to be a Pokedex holder to do that?" Ash asked as he continued to play with dreepy, who was rattling off questions that Ash had no way of answering without making it obvious he could understand the little dragon.

"Well, why else do you think I'd agree to be both your sponsors? I can't do everything out of the goodness of my heart and-" Professor Oak chimed in.

"Really!" Both teens loudly exclaimed at the same time which gave the Professor a start.

"Yes," he replied somewhat irritated, "I'm past my prime for intensive fieldwork and this will make both your journeys infinitely more interesting."

Oak's grumpiness had no effect on the two boys' enthusiasm, with Gary declaring, "Alright! You'd better watch out Ashy boy, cause I'll have my National Dex filled before you even figure out how to turn yours on!"

Ash shot up from the crouch he was in, giving dreepy a scare at the sudden movement, "Yeah well I'll have my Master Badge before you've raised any of your Pokémon to level ten!"

"Ha! I bet you've never even been in a Pokémon battle before! In fact, your dreepy couldn't even land one hit on my eevee!" Gary challenged with a smirk.

"We'll see about that! Right dreepy!" Ash declared looking back to dreepy, the fiery look in his eyes making the shy dragon squirm.

"Dreep dreep?" Dreepy croaked out, which Ash understood as, "Do I have to?"

"Don't worry dreepy, I know you can win!" Ash replied as he pumped his fist near his chest, but the little ghost looked unconvinced, nervously eyeing Gary's eevee, who if anything looked bored by the exchange.

"Alright, that's enough you two. You both know that impromptu battles are not allowed until the season officially starts and only between trainers with licenses, which you don't have Ash. And from your Pokémon's reactions, I don't think either are too keen on battling each other," Blue scolded, slightly stepping between the two hot-headed teens.

Professor Oak nodded, "Yes, it's lunchtime if anything. Why don't you spend some time bonding with your Pokémon instead? My cook made some charizard class curry with mushrooms that I can't wait to enjoy."

Ash and Gary were about to protest until a loud growl emanated from both their stomachs, which made them both sheepishly look away as Blue laughed, "I guess that settles it, lunch then some basic training for bonding."

Both dreepy and eevee happily cheered before rushing to the kitchen ahead of the humans, with dreepy phasing right through the wall while eevee was blocked by the door. Not long after the clatter of a pan could be heard which made everyone grimace before dashing for the house, with the oldest Oak in a full out sprint, "Ah! My curry! Dreepy!"

When the others caught up to him in the kitchen, the Professor was on his knees by a mess of curry, or what was left alongside an extremely satisfied dreepy.

"Why did it have to be the curry?" Oak cried.

Blue shook his head before saying, "I'll go ahead and order something. You boys like pizza?"

_…After lunch…_

"Ok dreepy, do it just like that but put a little more power into it. The target won't hurt you if you hit it. Now use quick attack!" Ash said to the timid dragon as he pointed at the soft training dummy set up in Professor Oak's laboratory basement.

"Dreep!" Dreepy affirmed before he zigzagged towards the dummy and then through it at the last moment, again.

Ash sighed, "Maybe we should try something that's not a physical attack. How about infestation?"

Dreepy shook his head back and forth and gave a determined, "Dreep!"

"It's ok if you want to switch attacks or take a break."

Dreepy just shook his head again and said, "Dreepy, dreep, eep!" meaning, "No, I can do this! Watch!" And did another quick attack but sped past the target and into the wall behind instead.

"Dreepy!" Ash ran over to find dreepy unharmed aside from his pride.

"Dreeeeeep," Dreepy sighed.

"I think it's time for a break. Then we can get to work on aiming. Sound good?"

Dreepy relented and agreed.

"Alright, let me go grab some water from upstairs and I'll be back."

Ash headed up the stairs and to the kitchen, glad to be rid of Gary for the time being. Normally the lower part of the laboratory was used for recording data on Pokémon moves, but Oak made an exception for Ash's dreepy. They had started in the normal training room alongside Gary, but the little ghost dragon flinched every time eevee tackled the regular training dummy and was on the verge of tears. After he flew through Ash and through the Professor, they decided it was best if dreepy had a quieter place to practice.

Ash tried not to be frustrated, he knew dreepy were normally timid, however Gary's incessant mocking and bragging quickly consumed Ash's nerves. With each word Gray spewed out, Ash could feel a strange energy boil up inside. He would have lashed out at Gary, but luckily dreepy intervened first by ghosting through both him and Oak. No one had reacted as if there was anything different outside of being chilled through by a ghost pokemon, but Dreepy's reaction made Ash wonder if he had been able to tell something was off.

Ash shook his head, pushing back his conflict with Gary from the forefront of his attention and refocused on training, which was at least something he had more control over. Dreepy was spirited but not the most battle-ready Pokémon, still avoiding actually hitting the practice dummy. However, even with a new environment, dreepy shouldn't have immediately gone from being terrified of hitting the dummy to charging at it and stopping shy of it as he was now. It didn't help his suspicions, as he hadn't told dreepy that he could understand him yet, and could overhear the dragon whispering to himself over and over, "If my trainer can do it, so can I."

Ash made his way back down to find dreepy curled up on the bench, nearly asleep, and clearly much more tired than he wanted to let on. He looked at dreepy a lopsided grin, "I think it's time to call it a day."

Dreepy snapped awake and started to protest, "No I can keep going! I don't want to disappoint you! I know you can't understand me but please let me keep trying! I want to prove to Giratina I deserve to be here!"

"Huh? What does Giratina have to do with it?" Ask asked.

Dreepy stopped mid-ramble, looking like Ash had used astonish on him, "You, you can understand me?"

Ash rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Ah, yeah. Sorry I didn't tell you earlier. It's not something I'm supposed to share with anyone but Agatha. I was going to wait until later to avoid having the Professor and Gary find out by mistake, but I'm really confused about what a legendary Pokémon has to do with your training. Is he a hero of yours?"

Dreepy cocked his head at Ash's reply, "You mean you don't know? You almost attacked using his aura earlier and…and I got scared you were angry with me, and I didn't want Giratina to be angry with me, so I stopped you and…you're not angry are you?"

Ash quickly shook his head and softly smiled, "No dreepy I was never angry at you, Gary on the other hand, I'm pretty sure annoying people is a permanent part of his overall lackluster personality. But I don't think I understand what you're saying, I definitely can't use a legendary Pokémon's power. If that were possible I wouldn't still be stuck here in Pallet."

Dreepy just cocked his head the other way and back before shaking his head, "No, it's definitely Giratina's. The other ghost Pokemon where I was born told me all about it! There was even this one human who-"

Above them they could hear the door to the basement open up which had Ash cutting off dreepy mid-sentence, "You did great for your first day of training dreepy! But I think it's time we head back upstairs and get ready for dinner."

Dreepy got the hint and played along, giving Ash a cheerful chirp and following behind him to meet Blue at the bottom of the stairs.

"I was hoping to catch you before you headed back down here, but it looks like you two were already wrapping up. How'd the training go so far?" Blue asked.

"It went great! Dreepy is still shy about hitting the dummy but he's got lots of determination. Won't be long before he's able to one-hit-KO his opponents," Ash replied, grinning to Dreepy adding, "Right?"

"Dreep!" Dreepy agreed.

Blue gave a chuckle, "Excellent! Let's talk more over cake, my mom should be here soon, and I don't doubt she'll be eager to meet a new type of ghost Pokémon."

"Dreep?!" Dreepy exclaimed over hearing there was more food which made both Ash and Blue immediately grimace.

"But the cake's not here yet! I still have to go pick it up!" an obvious lie to Ash but an extremely necessary one after the incident at lunch.

"Yep! Sorry dreepy, got to wait a little bit longer so let's both rest down here for a bit! See you after you get back Blue!" Ash added, distracting dreepy as Blue sprinted back up the stairs, yelling at the Professor to hide the cake from dreepy in a panic.

Dreepy bought the charade and settled on returning to his nap while Ash tidied up the practice area, their previous conversation quickly forgotten.

_…Later that evening…_

The rest of the evening went on as normal as it could for Ash between Gary's obnoxiousness and keeping Dreepy from eating every piece of food in sight. Agatha seemed a little off, but Ash assumed it was from the lateness of the hour and that she had spent all day in a meeting that she had taken to complaining about on and off throughout the evening. She never was the most energetic after anything that had to do with meeting the other members of the elite four and it was better to steer clear or else be trapped by her own version of mean look. Ash thought he had managed to avoid just that with Professor Oak getting more than one earful until Agatha came up to him and Dreepy, both sleepy as a snorlax from the cake and curry, and quietly asked to meet with him out back after she was to leave for the evening. Ash cringed a bit, but one look from the wizened woman made him think twice before complaining and instead reminded himself he needed to ask her about the blue energy and Dreepy's earlier comments.

Soon Agatha wished everyone goodbye, which was Ash's cue to make an excuse to go outside despite the late hour and assure Professor Oak he wasn't going to do anything reckless. Going to Flaffy Mart for snacks was enough to get the Professor to let out an exasperated breath and wave him off, reminding him to keep Dreepy in his Pokeball in town. Of course, once he went out the front door and got down to the main street, Ash simply looped around and took the old shortcut into the woods and to the place he and Agatha always met, where she was already waiting.

"Took you long enough, you know these old bones of mine don't care for the cold much," Agatha bickered.

"Sorry Agatha, the Professor had a hard time believing I was still hungry, thankfully Dreepy's appetite is more notorious than mine now. So, what did you need to talk about?"

Agatha seemed to hesitate, loudly huffed, while groaning to herself, "There's no easy way to ask this, but at the recommendation of a dear pupil of mine, I need to know if you've had anything strange happen as of late."

"Strange?"

"As in with your ability to speak with Pokémon."

"Oh, well nothing is different with that," Ash began. Agatha began to let out a held breath until Ash continued, "But recently I've been able to do this."

Ash held out both his hands, closed his eyes with a deep furrow between his brows as a wispy sphere of eerie blue energy came to life at his fingertips, steadily growing in size, casting sharp shadows around them that danced about as the tennis ball-sized orb struggled to keep form. He then let it dissipate into nothingness, with the cold light once again replaced by the warm tones of the setting sun. Ash, still breathing a bit heavy, let his form slump while Agatha had gone ridged.

"It...it takes a bit of effort, but the Pokémon seem to think it's a Pokémon move," Ash said still catching his breath, but Agatha didn't respond, only looked to the ground solemnly.

"Agatha is, is something wrong?"

She didn't reply immediately, letting the silence thicken the atmosphere around them while she twitched her lips in thought, "Not wrong, only difficult. I had hoped you wouldn't have anything beyond your current abilities, but it seems my pupil was right, and I will need to prepare you."

"Prepare me?"

"For aura training and in particular, dark aura and legendries' domains."


	8. Dark Aura Rising

Hi everyone!

Random Ramune here! Sorry for the long wait between chapters. As you all can imagine life is...insane. And I'm just hoping 2021 will be less intense than this year has been.

Originally I wanted to have this posted on Thanksgiving for anyone who was having a less than desirable time, but didn't want to post something too short like last time - I normally aim for about 3,000+ words a chapter. So I'm hoping that a day later will still help!

Some notes: This is lore and dialog heavy, but I'm hoping still enjoyable! And it does move the plot forward! I've been able to watch more of Pokemon Journeys and have some ideas on how to work that in. I'm pretty sure I know what Ash's team is going to be, just need to decide if I'm going to have this go region-by-region or just one solid team he builds up. Not sure I want to include the Pokemon DLC, mainly because it would be too OP having that many legendaries running around (great for stress relief, not so much for validating all the grinding from years before.)

Also please don't ask for spoilers! To quote Mr. Incrediible, "We get there when we get there!"

I'm not trying to be mean or cryptic, but I know as a reader that part of the enjoyment is that feeling of surprise finding out if all of your wonderings were right, wrong, or being thrown for a 180 that keeps you reading far too late into the night.

And Random Sword+Shield DLC TIPS: An easier way to get all the Reggies is to create a second profile on your Switch, and pick the opposite one of what you had picked on the other, and transfer it through Pokemon HOME (and I think the local connection will work, so no internet subscription required!) Same with legendary steeds!

If you start a new game to do this, after you get done with the Opening Ceremony and unlock fast travel, you can head back to the station and go to the Crown Tundra. After you fight Peony (you don't have to win but if you have enough revives you can let the hail KO his pokemon slowly for you!) Avoid the wild Pokemon/use Pokedolls, and with no badges, you can do the Dynamax Adventures and catch level 65-70 Pokemon to take on your first gym! And they should obey you as you are the Original Trainer.

if you're shiny hunting the Swords of Justice, to make things simpler/time-saver, KO the non-shiny legendary, then KO another random pokemon nearby, and then the legendary should respawn right after.

Ok, enough of that, I hope y'all enjoy!

**Chapter 7: Dark Aura Rising**

Ash stared at Agatha mouth agape and lifted a brow, "…What?"

"Dark aura, or at least that's the grotesquely inaccurate name for it. It's better understood as volatile aura, not that's any better, but its nature is to fluctuate, change, rather than stay stable. And unfortunately for dark aura users, the place their aura is generated from and therefore connected to the legendary and even mythical Pokémon associated with it and their domains outside this plane of existence," Agatha briskly replied, which only made Ash more confused.

Agatha saw this and huffed, "It means your abilities are directly connected to a legendary Pokémon, and because of this connection, you'll eventually crossover into one of their planes of existence briefly. To prepare you for when that happens, you'll need to train up your aura, or you'll become overwhelmed by the domain."

"I got that Agatha, but what you're saying sounds, well…"

"Crazy?" Agatha filled in, "Is it any crazier than a human that can understand Pokémon?"

"Seriously Agatha? There's no way talking to Pokémon is in the same gym, the same league as a legendary, volatile…dimensional…"

"Just stick with dark aura, which, unlike regular aura, allows those with it to communicate with Pokémon. And as your proficiency with it increases, will enable you to draw more power from the legendary you are connected to. So yes Ash, it's in the same gym, but the level of training you'll need to advance to this 'gym leader' is far greater than the gym trainers," Agatha said.

Ash shook his head, "It still sounds so-"

"Unbelievable? Heh, the things I could say on that, but I'll instead tell you the things about when I first encountered a dark aura user. The raw power that man possessed alone was frightening, especially as a young, or younger, ghost type specialist, which already had given me abilities that were considered unnatural. But his aura, it felt as if I was standing in the presence of the great mythical mew themselves. If my specialty hadn't been ghost types, I'm certain they would have been able to see past my mental guards and then some…"

Ash's jaw was slightly agape as Agatha told the story. Not only because of it's content, an aura user, dark aura he had to keep correcting himself, with access to the creator of all Pokémon mew's powers, from shapeshifting to psychic abilities that could crush an alakazam in its mega-evolved form's mind in the blink of an eye, but because of how Agatha's demeanor changed. She had always been guarded, prickly, and a bit cranky, but while speaking of this near-mythical sounding Pokémon trainer, her voice softened, her words and actions animated and full of enthusiasm, like a past-self had taken over, and even admiration, the way a mother would talk about her son. That was until she came near the end of her story.

"…He was someone I had grown proud of, strong, earnest, kind, if not a bit headstrong, but none-the-less proud to call my pupil and wildly successful founding member of the original elite four. That was until he traveled to the Sinnoh region to establish league relations and he, changed. I don't know what happened exactly, only that the kind person that I, that we all knew, had grown cold. Distant. Angry. It wasn't long before he retired, and with little explanation of why. It wasn't until later we discovered that he had made contact with another legendary domain, Giratina's reverse world, while exploring the ancient ruins of a dark aura users' temple in the mountains. And by the time we reached him, he had devolved into the same state you witnessed in these woods, with the reverse world's energies consuming him…it was then I had no choice but to use this."

With a quick tap on the ground with her cane, the top popped open and revealed a dark orb that immediately triggered a tightness in Ash's chest and a churning in his gut, "What is that?"

"It's a special orb that absorbs dark aura and nullifies it. Historically it was used as a last resort among dark aura users, mostly as a punishment, but for the hunters it was a weapon, an interrogation device, a dark aura detector in the witch hunts conducted by the aura guardians of Cameron Palace."

Ash was taken aback, jumping up from the seated position he had taken during Agatha's story that startled dreepy who woke with a squawk, as he had been much more interested in napping than the story, "But aura guardians are the good guys! They protected all of Kanto from invasion and division!"

Agatha closed the top of her cane, making a motion with her hand for Ash to sit back down before she continued, "They are also that. Kanto's, and on that matter any nation's history is far more complicated and fraught with contradictions than what you will learn in school. The aura guardians are no different. While the real reason why the hunts began is officially unknown, there are a few theories. The one I believe is the most likely is the creation of a cult around an unusually powerful dark aura user who claimed to be connected not only to Giratina, but two other legendries as well. It's not known which ones, only that it enabled them to perform miraculous acts, mostly for destruction. And it was with one of these stones that they stopped him, but the fallout afterward began an era of persecution for the dark aura users that only ended once the aura guardians themselves became legends as well."

"So why are you telling me this?" Ash asked, a slight tremor noticeable in his voice as he eyed Agatha's cane.

"Relax boy, I'm not going to use it on you, at least not without your consent. And it's because you need to know what you could potentially get into, what could happen. The odds are technically slim and the domain you're connected to could be any number of legendary or mythical Pokémon, whether blessed by Victini, given the fortitude of Groudon or the elemental traits of the legendary birds. But the attacks that have had our whole nation on edge these past few years, we've come to the conclusion that these were not random. Rather they were targeting potential aura and dark aura users, and for what, we still do not know. Which is why I'm giving you the choice now. You can either keep your dark aura and with it begin your training, or I can take it away now, leaving you as ordinary, and safe, as it is with the rest of your peers."

It took a couple of seconds for Ash to fully process what Agatha was asking of him, or as fully as possible given the amount of information she had dispensed compared to what he originally knew of the world, and himself, feeling the weight of what she said even if he couldn't make out its entire meaning. So he asked what he knew he understood and what mattered to him the most, "Will I still be able to speak to Pokémon?"

Agatha shook her head, "Sadly no, that's directly connected to having access to dark aura. You yourself will still be the same, and you may feel off for a while, but as you generally have no experience wielding aura outside of a simple aura sphere, there would be no further impact beyond that."

Normally this wouldn't be something Ash would think long on, at least not when he was younger. To not be able to speak to Pokémon would have felt like becoming mute, given the amount of time he spent with Pokémon rather than people. But what Agatha said about these aura hunters had sent a chill through him. It was one thing for him to risk his own life and safety, that was solemnly his choice for himself, but to risk the safety of dreepy and the other Pokémon that would be in his care as a trainer, he didn't know if it was the right thing to make a choice for creatures, for friends he hadn't even met yet.

He was about to tell Agatha his thoughts when he heard, "Pika-pi!"

They both turned towards the western half of the forest to see Pikachu bounding along, calling for Ash and asking why he was all the way out here.

"Hey Pikachu! Sorry, I was talking to Agatha about some stuff."

Agatha eyed the yellow mouse curiously, not so much for his sudden appearance, but because the bond between him and Ash was distinctly similar to the troubling one he already forged with dreepy. Not that Ash would notice either of these, it was distinctly a high-level ghost specialist trait to be able to see destiny bond, or bonds, beyond the Pokémon battles.

"Who is your friend here Ash?" Agatha asked, which dreepy echoed with a light coo.

"Oh, this is Pikachu! He's been here since that big thunderstorm a couple of years back! I had originally found him after he made a mess of the Pokémon food stored out in Professor Oak's barn-"

"Pika, pikachu pi, pika, pikachu!" Pikachu bit out in his defense, meaning, "If he didn't want wild Pokémon in there he should have had better locks!"

Ash rolled his eyes and continued, "Anyway, Pikachu had gotten left behind from his group and wasn't used to finding food on his own, so we worked out a deal where he could settle down here until they came back and I would feed him, as long as he didn't cause any more trouble for the lab."

"Pika! Pikachu, pika pi, pika!" Pikachu added, happily patting his plump belly, saying, "And it's been one of the best decisions of my life!"

Ash gave a pained smile in response, starting to wonder how it was he kept finding Pokémon that had an appetite like his own, before returning to Agatha's question with a new idea in mind, "Agatha, could you watch dreepy for a bit?"

"Certainly, just please be back in a timely manner, I may work with ghosts but I don't care for the cold."

"Right!" Ash replied before turning to Pikachu, "Pikachu I need to talk to you for a second. Could you follow me?"

_…A few minutes later…_

Ash and Pikachu walked along, the forest floor becoming less open and instead was flush with dark, leafy undergrowth where Pokémon often hid. While during the day it was more likely to host pidgey and spearow foraging for fallen berries and nut, at night oddish slept in clusters around the base of trees, caterpie freely wandered about, along with the occasional rattata scampering in and out on their nighttime hunt for food. The presence of Ash and Pikachu were hardly a concern for them, and if anything made their task much easier knowing they weren't likely to be carried off by a hungry noctowl.

It didn't take long for Pikachu to break the silence once he couldn't hear Agatha in the distance, "Pika pika?" Pikachu asked.

"No nothing bad, just important," Ash replied followed by a small nervous laugh.

"Piiii," Pikachu sighed in relief as he followed Ash along what was a well-traveled path to some berry trees and bushes the local Pokémon with Ash's help had planted.

"So I'm going to be starting out on my Pokémon journey soon, which means I won't be here every day anymore, and probably won't be back for several months at a time."

"Pika, chu?"

"Yeah like Gary, which means I won't be able to bring extra food anymore or really see any of you like I have been."

Pikachu's ears dropped, which Ash assumed was in response to hearing there would be less food, or at least human food in his future diet but he continued anyway, "But I wanted to ask, if you'd might consider coming along with me on my journey?"

At this Pikachu's ears perked up and his eyes went wide, "Pikachuuu?"

"Well you'd probably have to battle cause I'd be carrying you as one of my six pokemon for my team, and you'd have a pokeball but you wouldn't have to stay in it since I know you're scared of them and-whaaa!" Before Ash could finish Pikachu had launched himself at Ash's head, knocking Ash to the ground with a thump from the sudden exuberant force that had tackled him.

"Pika!" Pikachu squealed out, meaning, "Yes!"

Ash grinned widely and was about to accept Pikachu's answer before catching himself, "There is one thing though."

Pikachu's happy cooing stopped, and his face scrunched, ears dipping back down, "Pi, pika pi?"

"Well, remember how I can do this?" Ash sat back up with Pikachu leaping off and raised his hands to make the aura sphere, which Ash couldn't help but notice was easier to conjure than last time, or he was just being paranoid after what Agatha told him, "Agatha told me that there are people that…don't like people who can do stuff like this, or talk to Pokémon." Ash let the sphere fade and then continued with a sigh, "And it's so stupid! But if they find out they could come after me and that means all my Pokémon could get hurt or kidnapped. And that's not even the reverse world stuff that could turn me into something like that freaky phantom I told you about before. And Agatha could take it away and then everyone would be safe, but I wouldn't get to talk to you or any Pokémon, not like this and there's a chance that none of what Agatha said could happen and-"

"PIKACHU!" In a frustrated cry, Pikachu released a pent-up thundershock that lit up the forest floor and drew a few glances from the nocturnal Pokémon, but as this wasn't anything new they simply looked away wondering what Ash had done this time. As for Ash, this could almost be considered a routine part of their friendship, but still, hurt.

"AGH! Pikachu! What was that for?!"

"Pika, pikachuuu, pi, pi pika! Pika pi, pika, pikachu pika! Pi. Ka. CHU!" Pikachu said moving his arms to what he was saying with his cheeks sparking at the end.

"…You really mean that?"

Pikachu nodded his head, "Pi!"

Ash teared up and this time was the one to lunge forward, scooping up Pikachu in his arms, "Thanks Pikachu!"

Pikachu grimaced briefly at the sudden hug but quickly went to reassure Ash of what he said with a cheerful, "Pika!"

Ash put Pikachu back down after getting back up to his feet with a new look of determination gracing his features, "Right! Let's go get back to Agatha!"

_…Not long after…_

By the time Ash and Pikachu got back from their walk, despite not being gone all that long, night had set in, which had made Agatha somewhat irritable dealing with the fresh mountain chill with only her light shawl. She initially wanted to scold the boy but held her tongue after reading the aura surrounding him and Pikachu. Dreepy gleefully drifted over to Ash which Ash returned in kind before turning his attention to Agatha.

"So have you made up your mind?" Agatha asked, already knowing the answer.

"Almost, I just need to ask dreepy," Ash turned to dreepy who was already looking up at him upon hearing his name, "So dreepy, after hearing what Agatha said about my aura, would you still be ok with traveling with me if I kept it? Or would you feel better knowing it couldn't…mess things up real bad? And be dangerous?"

Dreepy's eyes went wide and mouth dropped before they narrowed, as he began to scold Ash at a rapid-fire pace. Ash grimaced while Pikachu lightly shook his head in approval. Once dreepy finished Ash nodded in agreement and said, "It's settled then," and turned to Agatha, "Agatha, thanks for the warning and a way out, but it looks like both Pikachu and Dreepy don't want things to be any other way."

Agatha inclined her, "And I'm glad to know you won't be alone in this journey then. However, if things ever south, just know I can still reverse it if needed, it will be more painful, but not as painful as losing yourself forever."

"Pika, pikachu, pika-pi!"

"Dreep, dreepy, dreep-ep!"

Both Pikachu and Dreepy announced adamantly that they would not let that happen, helping Agatha ease the tension she felt in her shoulders, "I don't think you could have asked for a better pair of Pokémon to start your journey off on. And I will hold it to you two that he trains every day and you with him on learning to control and use his aura."

"Pi!"

"Dree!"

"Always!" the three of them said in unison.

Agatha smiled, at first kindly, and then with the mischievousness of a gengar, "Then you'd all better get some sleep! Be back here tomorrow at 4:00 AM on the dot! We've got a lot to cover before the next league season starts!"

At that the three's glee withered, their faces contorting into furrowed brows and worried eyes, "4…A…M?" Ash asked nervously.

Agatha inclined her head sternly, "And on. The. DOT!" with a final thump from her cane.

_…One Month Later, Early June…_

There was only one word that Ash had to describe the last month, brutal. Now most trainers would have given up the chance to catch a shiny Pokémon to personally train with a member of the elite four, Ash formerly included, but after what Agatha put him through every, single, day, he's given up ten shiny Pokémon just to get out of it. From 4 am to almost 10 pm at night, Agatha had him doing special exercises to do all manner of things with his aura, starting with masking. Initially, Ash had thought it was a little odd that a ghost specialist would be the one to train him in aura considering most of the Pokémon who used it were fighting types, but as Agatha explained, it was ghost specialists who could see aura and even manipulate it. Which was the first thing she taught Ash, how to manipulate his aura, namely hiding the part that showed dark aura. And it was far from easy.

When concentrating had once again alluded Ash as it had in his school studies, Agatha revealed she had a way for making it easier for him to do so, which was hours of physical training. From forming aura spheres, increasing his reflex time, speed, endurance, anything, and everything to get him used to feeling aura in his body, including trying to dodge weakened shadow balls from her gengar that Pikachu took much delight in watching, Ash was eventually too tired to do anything beyond sitting and learning to meditate.

It took a few sessions, but eventually, Ash was able to tell apart the normal, or neutral aura that aura guardians were known for, and the dark aura he possessed on top of it. While he didn't have the words to describe the difference himself, Agatha explained what she was able to see. Neutral aura was similar to the energy types of Pokémon who were water, grass, rock, ground, steel, bug, flying, ice, fighting and normal, "less otherworldly" as she put it. Dark aura also had these traits, but would almost always would be laced with the same qualities that fire, electric, poison, dark, fairy, dragon, psychic and ghost, which in comparison to neutral aura "moves around more." What Ash had to do was get his dark aura to mimic the behavior of his neutral aura, which would both disguise it and allow him to actually use it, which he couldn't do without knowing how to use neutral aura first to anchor it.

When he asked what would happen if he tried to use it without doing that, Agatha explained, "Most likely nothing, but there was this one story my master told me about a dark aura user with a domain connected to Kyogre and he ended up having to explain to his village how his squirtle created a massive flash flood in the middle of winter! There's still a ban on using rain dance there! Hahaha! But at least it wasn't a fire type's domain! Now that would have been nasty!"

After that Ash decided it was best not to do try that, especially because he didn't know what Legendary Pokémon's domain, he had access to, and neither did Agatha.

"I wouldn't worry about it too much," she had assured him, "But you seem to have a deep connection to both Pikachu and Dreepy, so my money would be on Zekrom, whose known to be electric and dragon. You might be able to shock Pikachu right back someday!"

"Pika, pikachu!" Pikachu warned, sparks flying off his cheeks glaring down the wizened women, saying "Don't you dare go giving him ideas!"

In the end the training had paid off, so that by the time his sixteenth birthday had passed, he not only was able to conceal his aura, he was able to give Agatha's gengar quite the battle before being bested by the prankish ghost. It was after one of these longer sessions that Agatha asked Ash to follow her as she lead him up a trail that headed north into the woods.

"You've come a long ways Ash, but more than that you have talent. Even my gengar was asking for additional training after having a human give him so much trouble."

"Gengar! Gengar, gar!" Gengar denied, saying, "I did no such thing!" letting out a huff from a wide frown.

"Thanks Agatha, if someone had told me I could learn how to battle like a Pokémon a month ago I wouldn't have believed it. Imagine how much better I'll be at battling other trainers!"

"Pika!" Pikachu wholeheartedly agreed.

"You didn't believe it if I recall correctly. You said it was 'unbelievable.'"

Ash rubbed at the back of his neck while giving Agatha a pained grin, "I guess that's right."

Agatha returned his grin with one of her own, "Not to worry, you weren't the first, and you won't be the last. Which is what I would like to talk to you about. Or more accurately, what my other pupil would like to."

Ash's face scrunched up, not exactly sure what Agatha meant when a soft voice behind him spoke, "Yes very much."

Ash and Pikachu both yelped and spun around, feeling like their souls were going to jump out of their skins, to see a young man, likely in his late twenties suddenly standing behind them. He was dressed in a suit whose shade of blue reminded Ash of the same shade of blue a lucario's fur was. Underneath his jacket was a deep black turtleneck that matched the messy black hair on his head not that dissimilar to his own. On his head sat a wide-brimmed hat of the same shade that was a less common style for Kanto but he could see being normal for one of the northern regions, all of which matched his piercing blue eyes set above a warm smile. But what stood out to Ash the most was the faint blue wisps of aura that flowed off of him letting him know they had more in common than unkept hair.

Before Ash could speak, the man's aura changed, the calm blue tendrils shifting to a fiery red before smoothing out into animated purple with flecks of red and blue swirling off it.

"Dark aura?" Ash wondered out loud to himself that Agatha responded anyway.

"Yes, Ash I would like you to meet Riley, a dark aura user like yourself and currently the only known Aura Guardian with official recognition."

Riley gave a small, respectful bow to Agatha saying, "Thank you sensei," before standing straight again and speaking to Ash, "I'm hoping that won't be true for long, but before that can happen there are more than a few things that will need to change. Especially before letting more dark aura users into the Guardian Initiative."

Ash was slightly taken aback, suddenly wanting something he was told he couldn't have "What is that? Why can't dark aura users join if you're one?"

Agatha also seem intrigued, raising an eyebrow while being careful to hide her confusion from Ash, "Oh?"

Riley frowned, "I'm sorry I wasn't able to tell you before meeting, but they plan to announce it this evening. The League announced the new leader of the Viridian Gym where we planned to start the program," Riley took a breath before finishing, "Giovanni has decided to come out of retirement."

And in reply, Agatha let loose a long stream of curses, half of which Ash had never heard.

"Who's Giovanni?" Ash asked, who was suddenly feeling like he had stumbled into a beedrill nest and was just trying to stay one step ahead of the swarm.

Agatha was still fuming and muttering curses so Riley replied, "Many, many things. Some official, some rumored, but certainly not a friend to dark aura users."

Agatha finally regained some of her composure and spoke, "And most definitely a friend to that mankey-headed Lance. This is a conversation best had over tea and snacks."

Riley smiled lightly, "Sabrina thought so when she told me. She said she would teleport us over when you were ready."

"Oh, she knows I'll never be ready to have this conversation, even without future sight. Let's get this over with."

With that, the forest floor was suddenly emptied of three humans and a Pikachu and returned to its curse free state.


End file.
